The Moon Eclipse
by Yamatohime
Summary: The 497th Research fleet was performing an experiment when something went horribly wrong. The sole survivor, the civilian contractor and the head scientist Yi Hyun-Ae got a lot of problems on her hands. The starting one is an unknown ship that was detected by her ships sensors.
1. Prologue

**AN:** It was written to get a breath of fresh ideas for my Alice in Wonderland fanfiction. It is rework of an old fanfiction that died during it ealry chapters. R&R. Help with grammar would be good. =)

 **Prologue**

"Operator has regained consciousness," – a soft woman-like synthetic voice greeted Hyun-Ae when she opened her eyes. There was only darkness around her. It seemed that she passed out in control tube during test drive because of some unpredicted side effect.

"Fortress class ship "Chang'E" sustained massive electromagnetic strike of unknown nature, all subsystems ceased to function three standard hours ago. Minor hull damage reported by repair drones, more information in specific record. Personnel status is unknown, internal scanners still not restored due to low priority…" – the same synthetic voice started to flood the girl with reports of the current situation aboard the ship.

Fortress class ship should be the most technologically advanced warship, being the testbed for new weapon, defense and auxiliary systems developed by central government. Hyun-Ae could not understand how such extensive damage happened to all non-crucial subsystems. According to reports, only A.I. core, self-repair system and life-support continued to function properly. There was no response even from internal security subsystem, probably due to some errors in it.

"Connection established with NUNS "Manticore", Rear Admiral Pavlov on line," – An image appeared in front of Hyun-Ae.

"Lieutenant, I am glad that you are alive. Listen carefully. I was not able to contact your ship for a while; the probability of others… others to be alive is low… You should not panic and stay still, we will try to get to you after we fix our fold drives," – The old man that was her direct commander looked quite beaten up, even his usually perfectly groomed white beard was in total disarray. His face was full of concern and after pondering for several seconds he added – "I authorize you to use all systems, girly. Just do not blow up allies out of scare. Authorization codes will be sent shortly. We lack energy for prolonged long distance communication. Wait for us, help is coming…"

"Connection with NUNS "Manticore" was lost…" – Hyun-Ae was left speechless. Was she really a single survivor on board of "Chang'E"?

"Yutu, put internal security subsystem priority at the top after crucial ones," – The locks on control tube were still flashing red, meaning that outside of it was not safe. A.I. acknowledged the change of repair priorities and reported that the bridge repairs should be completed in seven standard hours.

"Connection established with NUNS "Arrowhead", no survivors on board. Connection established with NUNS…" – The girl closed her eyes to cut of visual information while listening reports after reports that were said in monotone woman-like voice one after another.

The situation she got herself into was not good. Even though all ships in her sub-fleet survived the unknown disaster, there were no survivors besides her. "Chang'E" sustained minimal damage because of the sheer size and thickness of the armor while others, even two Battle Class ships were heavily damaged. She did not even know how she managed to survive. The only difference between her and people outside was that she was free floating inside control tube, partially protected by recently developed compact fold shields.

"Connections with all escort ships in vicinity had been established. Total estimated casualties are 329 761 personnel…" – She developed A.I. to lighten the burden on crews during deep space operation, another A.I. was developed to bypass limitations of neuro-link flight control systems which in return rekindled the research of neuro link systems in general. Now, there was no one around, only different types of A.I.s. She felt so vulnerable even though there were meters of armor surrounding her.

"Star system scanning completed. A habitable planet detected at 1.7 AUs. No NUNG presence detected. No allied governments detected. No fold signatures detected. Analyses of intercepted signals suggests a human colony on the planet…" – Yutu replayed some video and music fragments that really should belong to the human society of some kind. However, no fold signatures and no NUNG presence. Was it renegade colony? It was unlikely be anti-government forward base. After all, her derelict fleet was drifting in space for hours and still was not detected by the planet space force that scanning showed to her.

"Authorization codes were received from NUNS "Manticore", all weapon subsystems are unlocked. Advanced active stealth subsystem and auxiliaries are unlocked. The long range fold protocols are unlocked. Astrogator subsystem is unlocked…" – the list of unlocked subsystems continued for several minutes. Majority of them was a total mystery for Hyun-Ae and she redirected control over them to Yutu A.I.

The small factory that was used as HQ for research fleet found some asteroids nearby and begun production of spare part to boost repair of the most damaged ships. Hyun-Ae anxiety reduced a little. Even though, she was alone she was not left defenseless and everything would be good when the main fleet would come here to get her out of this predicament. Without anything to do and to slow down metabolism the girl decided to nap a little…

"Attention, unidentified ship on collision course detected!"


	2. Chapter 01

**AN:** Here is an actual chapter for this fanfic. I hope you will enjoy it. R&R. Help with grammar would be nice as well.

 **Chapter 01**

"Captain, remind me why we volunteered for this mission?" – Samson was tired. They were accelerating for full 12 hours at almost 5g and, after brief period on inertia, they were deaccelerating for 12 hours as well. It stained engine, reactor and nerves of engineers since they did not have too much propellant left for combat if they intended to return to Aptic III.

Their ship was traveling for hours in real space to check some unknown phenomena. Almost thirty hours ago, observers detected the bright illumination at the edge of the mapped Aptic system part. The HQ decided that it would be foolish to leave it alone right before the general battle and sent a single Roil-class assault ship to investigate. Somehow, that one ship became "Basroil".

"Chief Engineer, it was an order from the commander," – Lafiel was not enthusiastic about her current mission as well, but mission was a mission and it had to be completed. An investigation of such situation should be a job of local security force. It was not something that required a notion from Star Force. Nevertheless, the current circumstances left Abh forces in the system without any assistance from local militia because of the war.

"Our scanners found over hundreds of vessels in a relatively tight cluster," – The readings were somewhat strange, without proper definite results, but Sobaash managed to sort out space debris from actual ships. Still, it was hard to get clear readings from those vessels.

"Aviator, get us closer to one of those ships. Slowly." – They did not know the nature of this unknown fleet. It would be foolish to provoke them with reckless maneuvering.

"Basroil" reignited her engines for several seconds and turned to the closest vessel that looked like analogue of Roil-class assault ship. It had dagger shaped hull with some protrusions here and there, which looked like laser cannons of their own. The entire ship looked quite damaged but a number of small craft, likely drones, were repairing her.

"That is not Abh or any other humankind nation ship," – Jinto closely looked at the screen while "Basroil" illuminated another space vessel with projectors. The shape did not resembled any class of ships that were previously encountered by Star Force. Additionally, it did not even resembled engineering designs of any nations or habitable planet.

"But it was made by humans or their descendants…" – The certain starboard section came into view. There were familiar numerals, which probably was a part of the ship designation. Sobaash entered several commands into "Basroil" CPU and read out translation – "NUNS "Avenger". 497th New United Nation Research Fleet. Earth Defense Force."

"Is this… A generation ship escort fleet?" – It was the first assumption that came to Lafiel after she heard "Earth". She had read reports about such derelict ships that traveled for hundreds of years without any real purpose after their crews met some calamity in space – "Is there anything that could be a generation ship?"

"Yes, scanners get a clear reading of several possible objects. The largest one has a rough diameter of 500 WesDagh. Others are in 90 to 200 WesDagh range," – Sobaash displayed her findings on the screen and pointed out each object size.

No matter how anybody on the bridge looked, it was certainly a very large generation fleet that left the Earth hundreds of years ago. It left and never reached its destination, the world it should have colonized. Instead, it wandered for unknown numbers of years without purpose and only automatic systems maintained it, prolonging the life of this ghost fleet.

"It is a large graveyard…" – Samson nervously gulped. He was not afraid of the dead. It just the scenery alone was very nerve wrecking. The man turned his head to Lafiel – "Captain, we discovered the fleet. Maybe we should leave the deceased alone… Let specialists deal with it."

"We still did not find the source of that massive illumination," – As a member of Abh Royal family she wanted to properly conclude this mission. They had to investigate this lifeless fleet in order to avoid some more variables for the upcoming battle. The stakes was high. If Abh would lose Aptic System, the entire operation "Phantom Flame" would be compromised. These derelict ships were unknown factor in equation after all.

"Head Aviator, move us to the "main" ship!" – They should start from the generation ship, the center of the fleet – "Aviator, clean up debris."

"Basroil" slowly floated away with viener thrusters and turned her nose toward the massive object that should be a generation ship. However, before the main engine was able to start…

"Captain! The ship, NUNS "Avenger", weapon systems have been activated!" – Sobaash detected an activation of unknown vessel laser turrets, which immediately were pointed at "Basroil" starboard.

"Aviator, stop all maneuvers!" – Since they were not shot on spot it would be better to stop any movement for the time being. The Roil-class assault ships were designed for high speed, high maneuverable combat to protect the blind spot of capital ship but at this range they would likely receive several hits and soon would be swarmed by this vessel comrades.

"It seems, we are still alive…" – A sigh escaped from Samson when he relaxed in his chair. Several drops of sweat could be seen on his face – "Captain, I want a vacation after this mission… If we manage to get out alive…"

"I think the automatic defense activated in response to powering up our own laser turrets," – Jinto pointed out an obvious reason. It was good that its creators were not trigger-happy or else "Basroil" would be turned into debris.

"I think we were not shot down only because we powered up laser turrets. If we would power up proton cannon… NUNS "Avenger" would likely start shooting," – Unlike Jinto, Sobaash had a little understanding how A.I. could process and respond to different type of threats. According to her knowledge, the automatic defense system was currently performing "arrest of trespassers" – "If we try to move… She probably would start shooting as well…"

"Nice! We are stuck here…" – Samson sighed and looked at his screen. There was nothing requiring his attention but it distracted him a little.

"Would our shields withstand several hits?" – Lafiel tried to think through her options. They could try to escape or send distress signal. They could destroy NUNS "Avenger" as well but it would definitely interpreted as hostile action and other ships would likely attack "Basroil". The last option was a suicide one.

"It is hard to say. We do not know how powerful their laser turrets are… If they are as powerful as ours, we could take several hits but…" – Samson nodded toward the main screen where dozens of turrets were pointed at their own ship – "This one could achieve those hits in one or two barrages…"

"I agree with this opinion," – There was no reason to think that those laser turrets were less powerful as their own. Underestimation of enemy could lead to death more quickly than stupid orders from commander.

"I think I can dodge majority of enemy turrets but it would require high acceleration maneuvers" – Ekuruya, who was silent to this moment, suggested an escape strategy. She enlarged a keel portion of the ship where less turrets were stationed – "Enemy ship do not have proton cannon so we want be shot down in one salvo…"

"Jin… Supply Officer Linn?" – Lafiel corrected herself and turned to the young man after listening their opinions.

"I think we should try to contact…" – Jinto was not able to finish his part when Sobaash alerted everybody.

One of NUNS "Avenger" turrets turned forward to intercept incoming asteroid about tenth of her own size. The bright beam hit the space rock and after one blinding flash there was nothing… Only some warm gas…

"I think, we should contact HQ…" – Samson and Sobaash agreed with Jinto.

"Incoming transmission…" – Ekuruya flatly informed her superiors while a massive shadow covered "Basroil"…

* * *

"So, there was unidentified phenomena during the test run of the star gate facility…" – Hyun-Ae mumbled to herself while she was reading data from various systems. Everything so far suggested that her current situation was due to the reckless decision of the director Kazama. The entire research fleet was caught into this mess as well as nearby industrial facilities and space stations. Aside "Chang'E" only about one hundred of ships were still functional, many more was completely devastated. The burst of energy from superdimension destroyed the ones who was close to the epicenter.

The loss of personnel on other hand happened because of aftereffects. The data recorded enormous g-force that overwhelmed gravity control systems of every ship, which killed unprepared people almost instantly. The source of excessive gravitational force was not determined because it was followed by EMP wave that put main computers out of order for several seconds while many other subsystems shut down completely. She survived by the sheer luck. The control tube was equipped with ISC autonomous subsystem. Additionally liquid inside the tube somewhat reduced the stress on her body as well.

"That is so troublesome…" – the girl sighed. After several hours inside the tube she felt beaten and tired. However, she did not have a courage to wander into the corridors and move to the living quarters. Repair drones cleaned up the bridge, even the dead bodies and alike was removed without any traces, likely transported into a morgue. But, living quarters was not prioritized so…

Hyun-Ae walked to the one of bridge control panels and opened emergency shutters. There was darkness all around the ship, the same one she saw while being connected through neural link. Small dots of light, the distant stars were hardly an interesting sight to watch. The research fleet ships looked like shadows in dim sunlight of the system star, which was not particularly bright at this distance. It was quite depressing picture…

She pressed the button again to close shutters and walked to the captain chair. There was nothing for her to do and because of this many unpleasant thought surfaced in her mind. Would the escort fleet arrive soon? How long she had to live here, in the middle of nowhere, alone? And many other things that flooded her with uneasiness.

"Yutu, did you manage to update your protocols to the latest version?" – An insanity could come from loneliness. It was something that even as eccentric person like her had known for a while. That was the main reason to remove some restrictions from the ship A.I., to create a talking partner of sorts.

"Yes, Ma'am. Everything is in order. The update was successfully installed," – The somewhat artificial woman voice replied to the question and displayed the report of the system update. The lines were still stiff and unnatural but at least it was an improvement to the previous ones. It at least could be seen as human-like answers.

"Good. Is repairs going according the schedule? How long it will take us to fold out of this place?" – As it was, there was nothing interesting in the system. The third planet was habitable and even had some space capable civilization on it but without proper training, it would be unwise to establish the first contact.

"It will take approximately 278 standard hours before fold drive system on all fold capable ships would be repaired to functional level. Another 371 hours is needed to repair hulls of all present ships for safe travel. Approximately 173 hours required for weapon systems and normal space travel system to became fully functional on all ships," – the report was a nice mumbo jumbo for Hyun-Ae but she understood one thing – it would take a lot of time to fix everything important.

"How long will take the unidentified ship to get to our current position?" – Almost 28 hours ago, long distance scanners detected a sub-relativistic spacecraft on a collision course to the 497th fleet cluster.

"The unidentified ship is already arrived to our position and currently completely deaccelerated to manageable speed." – The large halo-screen flashed in the middle of the bridge with schematically depicted positions of all ships, including the unknown one.

"Mark it as a "Guest One", affiliation "Unknown", allegiance "Neutral". All warships should hold their positions and allowed to return fire in accordance to danger level." – Hyun-Ae tried to imitate orders that she heard on the bridge when Rear-Admiral Pavlov was in charge of "Chang'E". She did not know if the regulars would follow her orders but the A.I. managed to interpret her words into commands, which could be followed.

"Guest One" mark slowly moved to "Avenger" mark, the Northampton Class Stealth Frigate with full A.I. control. She was one of the few ships that was decommissioned and retrofitted for the new Ghost program. There were no other similarities aside the hull in comparison to normal, man-controlled Stealth Frigate. Each retrofitted frigate had better firepower, more CIWS and launch pods, new efficient power source and full shielding in addition to thicker armor. "Avenger" was one of the least damaged ships in the fleet at moment and had almost full complement of Ghosts ready to launch.

The unknown ship started inspection of "Avenger", which continued, according to orders, to "hold position" and performed deep scan of "Guest One" in return.

The ship was made of some kind titanium alloy with quite a lot of composite materials that theoretically increased it thermal resistance. Additionally hull was partially coated with some kind of ablative material to protect from heat type attacks. The bow section had a mechanism that allowed it to open; hiding behind the bow armor was likely some kind of powerful weapon. Closer to the ships aft were positioned two turrets, currently hidden inside shafts. If the reading were right, they were short-range lasers but it could be a similar type of energy weapon.

"What is this?" – Hyan-Ae pointed at unknown device that had no purpose in its description. It meant that A.I. was not able to compare the device functionality with database and make guess of its purpose.

"Unknown device. No direct analogue in New United Nation database," – That was quite "informative" but the girl pressed button and ordered computer to determine properties of the device through analyses of its structure. The additional columns of numbers appeared with a rough 3D schematics.

"Is it some kind of shield generator?" – It looked like one, similar to the first iteration of omni-directional barrier. However, there was no traces of fold energy signatures.

While Hyun-Ae was examining the structure of unknown ship, the said ship completed its inspection of "Avenger" and started to drift away. When "Guest One" distanced herself enough from the stealth frigate, she alerted the frigate systems.

"There is a message from "Avenger"," – The A.I. informed its operator about changes in situation. The girl closed the projection of the ship and looked at the video feed from the frigate. It seemed that "Guest One" activated their laser turrets and provoked reaction from A.I.

"The captain of this ship is quite careless one…" – Hyun-Ae sighed. She did not want to open diplomatic relations by herself. It was the main reason for her stealthy "fully automated fleet" approach. Nevertheless, at current circumstances there was no choice but to establish the first contact. The other way around would be to remove "possibly hostile" allegiance from "Guest One" but it could make the crew of that ship more daring. Which would be troublesome in different ways.

"Neo Nupetiet-Verginitzs bis Class Fleet Command Ship "Armadillo" is moving to intercept "Guest One"," – The nonchalant voice informed Hyun-Ae about another change in situation on the other side of metal plating of her own battleship. She completely forgot that there was a small detachment of Zendradi elite strike force. They had been assigned for testing new active stealth systems that would be applied on allied Zentradi forces with close ties to central government.

The massive blue colored ship got closer to the small "Guest One", shadowing her with its own hull. The numerous turrets emerged from it and pointed at the intruder. It was not good. She personally knew the of this Zentradi ship. That woman was a very short tempered one. Especially if no civilians were in vicinity.

"Connect me to "Armadillo"!" – Hyun-Ae saw that Command Ship already established connection to "Guest One" and could not comprehend why the did not asked for her opinion. The green colored message "Advanced Stealth System is active!" was flashing in the bottom left corner of halo-screen unnoticed by her…


	3. Chapter 02

**AN:** Here is an "introduction" chapter. New United Nations meet Humankind Empire of Abh... Read & Review. Help with grammar appreciated. Your thoughts would be nice as well. I hope you will enjoy this chapter.

 **Chapter 02-A**

"Captain, should I accept communication request?" – Ekuruya pressed several buttons and put her finger on the last one of the sequence to open up communication channel.

The ship suddenly trembled and several disturbing creaks echoed through corridors.

"No sections report any damage," – As his duty required, Jinto ran test over subsystems and checked possible hull damage.

"Captain, our gravity system is unstable and overloaded. It is probably an interference of another gravity system that is not synchronized with ours. I suggest turning off artificial gravity control to lessen burden on our reactor and keep it in safe zone for the time when we will really need it," – Samson on other hand was reading reports from the reactor crew and automatic systems, which shown a rise of energy consumption by artificial gravity control. It was likely that something big and massive came close to them and in addition this something had enormous gravity control of its own.

"Understood, Chief Engineer. Do it after the crew will be informed. Jin… Supply Officer, inform the crew about gravity control," – There was nothing that Lafiel could do in current situation. She did not have enough information to make proper decisions – "Head Aviator, do we see anything around us?"

"Yes, I will put an image on the screen," – Sobaash firmly replied and showed the view from observation cameras.

Right above them was a massive, battleship class ship of unknown structure. It was so strange and organic looking with all those smooth lines, protrusions and yellow-green color scheme. It looked like a giant space faring monster that traveled through space…

"What is this thing?" – Samson voiced everyone opinion.

"Captain, the alien ship is still requesting communication…" – Ekuruya reminded her Deca-Commander about the situation at hand. The image changed a little. It seemed that the other side was fed up with "Basroil" refusal of contact. Numerous turret emerged from the hull and aimed at the Assault Ship.

"We are accepting the communication request!" – The quiet aviator nodded and pushed the button to project an image on the screen.

"Oh! It seems our little friends are not dead… Yet…" – A relatively young woman greeted them with sarcastic remark and hidden threat. She had long deep blue straight hair that streamed behind her and the same colored eyes, which looked bored and a little angered – "It seems that the universal translator is working as intended."

"We had communication problem…" – Lafiel replied without hesitation in cold business tone. She had met people like this several times already and knew how to deal with them without aggravating them.

"If you say so…" – The woman smirked disdainfully in response. It was clear the other side understood that, what was said to her was a blatant lie. She hinted that such attitude was not acceptable – "I am Lt. Commander Orbos. I am in charge of 1007th Zentradi Strike Squardon of 72015th Autonomous Battle Group dispatched to protect 497th Research Fleet of New United Nations Government. You breached into our aerospace and on top of it performed hostile action toward equipment of New United Nations. According to my authority, I put your ship and you under arrest. In case of resistance, I will shot down your tin can without hesitation. So… Resist please."

"That is a bullshit! Captain, the Aptic system is clearly under Abh jurisdiction. Even though the system government never explored beyond their own orbit the territory should belong to us," – Samson pointed out the controversy behind Orbos' words. If they accept such claim it would put the Empire into tough situation later…

"But… Samson, I think this lady would shoot us if we do not surrender…" – Lafiel glared at Jinto, who said the forbidden word. The Abriels would never surrender. They would prefer to die in battle to avoid that kind of shame. And other noble families of old would do the same in such a situation.

"Captain… There is another transmission from the NUNS "Avenger"… Should I accept it?" – The aviator looked at Lafiel who slightly nodded in return.

"Good day. I am a Section Chief of the 497th Research Fleet. My name is Yi Hyun-Ae and I am currently in charge of the entire Research Fleet…" – It was a young looking woman in the black unfamiliar uniform with several strange decorations of sorts. She had a very long raven hair and a face that could be considered beautiful by the majority of men – "I apologize for inconvenience of our situation…"

"I am Deca-Commander Abriel of the Humankind Empire of Abh. I was sent here by my superiors to investigate mysterious phenomena that happened in this sector of OUR territory," – Lafiel decided that it was the right time to introduce herself and to defend her own presence at this place. She could not allow intruders to think that the Humankind Empire of Abh was easily intimidated – "Though, I partially understand that it was a mistake on our part not to put any marks for you to recognize," – Nevertheless, it would be stupid and undiplomatic to start confrontation over small volume of nothingness. She was not put as governor of this territory to worry about stranded generation fleets.

"Well, the Director had appeared. I will leave the decision about your fate to her. We, military are under direct command of civilian government in peaceful time," – Lt. Commander laughed and pushed all responsibilities on her unlucky ally. Lafiel thought that this woman had some similarities with another person, the read eyed Grand Duchess...

"Cut off the sound to "Guest One"!" – The Section Chief, or was it Director, disabled audio and started to yell something to Orbos, who disabled the sound transmission as well. Unlike Yi, she was smiling and laughing with a visible mirth in her eyes. Lt. Commander turned her head to order something to her subordinate when her ear came into plain view. The pointy ears and deep blue hair and eyes… Jinto turned to Lafiel, who silently looked at the image with shock plastered on her face.

"Is she an Abh?" – Samson was puzzled. He turned to Jinto who shrugged his shoulders since there was no answer to tell.

"Impossible… Abh never lost any spaceships without traces…" – It was hard to swallow that there could be other Abh, who was still in servitude to humans. Lafiel denied the possibility firmly.

"Well, that aside… What should we do? It seems that the other side has some disputes about the chain of command," – Sobaash had already understood that both females on the screen was trying to push responsibilities on each other. Though, it was coming to conclusion since both military commander and civil officer stopped talking – by the look on the face of Yi, she lost to her opponent in verbal battle.

The massive Zentradi Command Ship floated away from "Basroil" but left its turrets aimed at the ship. The NUNS ship in contrast deactivated its turrets and continued repairs like these long previous minutes was nothing.

"I introduce myself again. I am Yi Hyun-Ae, the director of the 497 Research Fleet and by the virtue of my position my military rank is Vice-Admiral…" – The last word was said like a curse. The girl was surely not old enough to be in charge of any sizable fleet if any but she was likely persuaded by Lt. Commander Orbos to accept that duty – "As the director of our Research Fleet I want to stay in the system and collect some nearby asteroids to repair my fleet. Is it acceptable?"

The bridge of "Basroil" became silent. Lafiel as Deca-Commander had not authority to accept that request not to mention that the 497th fleet had already begun to harvest asteroids and process them. Basically they were saying that no matter what kind answer they would receive they would continue with their operations. And if they would be provoked they would retaliate aggressively. It was coercion without any desire to hide it.

"And… In case we would deny your request?" – She had to ask that question. Even if it was asked just to clarify things.

"I will do nothing. If needed I can recycle some of my ships to fix the others," – It was said in nonchalant way without any hostilities. However, the phrase itself was worded that there was addition which immediately followed – "But Lt. Commander Obros is not directly under my command. Since this fleet is an extremely important… She would stupidly ensure its wellbeing with any possible means…"

"For example?" – With a steel in her tone, Lafiel asked her next question…

"For example…" – The girl sighed and in very tired way said – "Unfortunately… Her strike group possesses enough weapons to wipe out that enormous fleet near the third planet. I analyzed the structure of your ship and even though I could not determine purpose of all devices… The success rate of such assault would be… 99,9 percent. Even in case of horrible miscalculation her Command Ship is armed with exotic planet killer weaponry…. And she has authority to use those weapons at her will. Lt. Commander Orbos is talented officer but even though she follows orders splendidly, she just interpret them her own way from time to time."

* * *

"It looks like this fleet was designed to travel for centuries in space," – Samson looked at the massive dome-like structure floating in the darkness in front of their ship. It was not as impressive in comparison to Abh space stations but it was still a great piece of machinery that was made to travel through galaxy without any outside support.

They got a permission to explore the fleet formation without restriction as long as "Basroil" would not activate her weapon systems. Everybody on the ship were interested in the derelict fleet that wandered into the Aptic system since it was not something that occurred every day.

Why they did so much time on their hands? All because Lafiel had no authority to accept demands from the 497th Fleet and negotiated for some time to contact superiors about their situation. The director Yi was not an unreasonable person, she agreed with their decision despite the possibility to alert the defensive fleet of Aptic III. Of course, the princess new that it was not viable for the HQ to send any sizeable detachment prior the main battle at the Sord but she understood that their new "acquaintances" were just that assured about their victory regardless of "enemy" numbers.

"These guys really adapted to travel in space," – Sobaash slightly turned the spacecraft to get a better look at another ship, or it would be better said that it was a factory of sorts. The massive superstructure was at least 500 WesDagh in size, probably built around asteroid and slowly turned into the manufacturing center of the fleet. The Abh had much more impressive industrial station but this one was truly a remarkable sight since it was mobile, even though somewhat slow.

Some of automatic drones, like bees were flying here and there, procuring materials from nearby asteroids that were dragged closer to the factory by numerous small ships. Others received spare parts and transported them to the line of ships assembled in unknown specific order. There were no traces of human intervention or presence at all. This entire manufacturing process was automated to the last step. Something even Abh scientists and engineers was not able to achieve.

The speed of mineral mining from the asteroids was alarming as well. In several minutes 2-3 WesDagh sized rock would be completely stripped of all useful mineral and metals. However, the 497th Fleet industrial facility processed even the waste carcass for some unknown purpose, leaving nothing behind. It was truly a wasteless production.

"With such technology, they did not achieved faster than light travel…" – Jinto curiously observed the space factory of the New United Nations. He could not comprehend how such nation, who developed such advanced automatons and much more powerful and compact energy weapons still traveled in real space.

"Maybe they have another method of traveling through space aside Planar Space?" – In a carefree tone, Samson joked about science fiction possibility. Though, to his knowledge, something like this was impossible in reality.

Jinto thought about it for a while and smiled as well. It was such a crazy theory… When he was a child he had read novels about warp, hyperspace and other unrealistic theories of faster than light space travel. Sobaash chuckled after hearing such a childish joke. The senseless joke lessened the tense atmosphere on the bridge.

"See… They are not as scary as you think. With a light speed as barrier, even they superior ships are not an immediate threat to the Empire and your territory, kid," – Since Lafiel was not in the cockpit – she left to rest before the next round of negotiation – Samson allowed himself to speak casually.

"Yeah, it would be really troublesome if they could jump right through the planet defenses that surrounded Sords," – Jinto agreed, that without faster than light capability the New United Nations would not be a competitor to the Empire. Still, the Abh should not allow the newcomers to join they hands with Four Nations Alliance, currently it was called Three Nation Alliance but the Abh understood that the Federation of Hania was plotting something behind everybody backs.

"So, what the Empire could actually give them?" – Samson was not a trader nor diplomat but her understood that forcing these guys was not an optimal option – "It seems these guys extremely militant nation that think about space as their home…"

"Like the Abh?" – It was a wild guess. Sobaash shrugged his shoulders instead of directly accepting Jinto's theory.

"Why not… It could explain why that Lt. Commander looked at us like the Abh looks at the landers… She probably thinks that we are weakling that afraid to leave the gravity of the planet…" – Samson exaggeratedly waved his hand, trying to show planet rotation and lightly laughed – "Isn't it ironical? Ah, kid… That the Abh themselves were looked down as the landers…"

"You probably should not mention it when the captain is around…" – It was a good advice from Sobaash which was laughed off by the Chief Engineer.

"Yes, I agree with it. Our captain would chew you down if you mention something like this to her..." – Jinto could imagine Lafiel's face when she would hear that kind of comparison. After all, the Abh clearly shown that they didn't think highly about planet dwellers, the landers – how they called them.

"Well, jokes aside… I kind of can't imagine anything that these guys…" – Samson pointed at another ship that they passed by – "That they would want from… Aside maybe the Planar Space travel technology… Which the Empire will never give to them."

It was definitely true. The Humankind Empire of Abh wanted to monopolize interstellar travel and communication by denying access to the Time-Space Generator technology. Without ability to move on the Planar Space the Empire tried to minimize possibility of human conflicts. Such policy on the controlled territory would forbid exchange of that technology to outsiders.

"Maybe a planet?" – It was ridiculous proposal from Jinto. He wanted to offer a noble title to unknown nation with a planet to boot.

"Do you really think they need a planet?" – Samson turned to Jinto and looked at him – "Look outside, kid! These people traveled through space for centuries without relying on any planet. Their entire fleet… Looked so nomadic in nature. They are more Abh than the Abh themselves."

"Well, even if they want a planet… They would prefer the unhabituated one with an environment that could support the human life," – Being a former trader, Sobaash could made some assumption about preferences and desires of probable trade partners. And it was clear as fine glass that the generation fleet would like a nice planet without any population on it. The Aptic III, the closest planet with proper environment was already overpopulated and could not support itself without trading with agricultural planet. Other rocky celestial bodies in the Aptic System required heavy terraforming, which would take a lot of time and money.

"Agh!" – Sighing in frustration, the Chief Engineer stretched his arms – "Let drop this useless topic. Higher ups would decide everything in their best interest, not ours…"

"Auuuh," – Jinto yawned in response and stretched his arms as well, to sober up a little – "I agree… No matter what, we are just couriers. The real negotiation is up to ambassadors or something like this." – He was deadly tired after staying awake for over 30 hours straight. His duty would be over soon but he did not know if he would be able to rest.

"Hey! What is this?" – Sobaash zoomed the object that picked his interest and pressed some buttons to confirm something. After several seconds he looked at the large spaceship with surprised expression on his face.

"What the matter? Don't scare us, please," – With a tired face, Samson asked his colleague about the situation that agitated him.

"This thing is not on our scanners… Like at all…" – The Head Aviator was a serious person who would never joke about his duties. Usually. And of course, not in such a tense situation like the current one – "According to visuals and in comparison to other vessels in vicinity, which we already catalogued, this ship is around 40 WesDagh long… And despite her size it is invisible both on all our scanners, like she is not even here!"

The zoomed in image showed a portside of the massive battleship, comparable to the Zentradi Command Ship or their own battleships in sheer size but clearly designed in the same style as the rest of the 497th Fleet. The large black letters on the silver colored metal were translated by "Basroil's" computer as "NUNS "Chang'E". 497th New United Nation Research Fleet. Earth Defense Force."

* * *

"So, what is the meaning behind the charade?" – After closing the communication channel with "Guest One", Hyun-Ae asked the Zentradi commander about spectacular show that she orchestrated. It was clear for the "new appointed" director that Lt. Commander had a higher rank in comparison to her Lieutenant one. Orbos should have assumed command over the leftover forces of the 497th Fleet.

"What do you mean by this, Ma'am?" – The carefree Zentradi laughed in response, completely ignoring an implication behind her conversation partner words.

"Don't joke around, Mira! We both know what it is all about!" – It was always like this for them, that Zentradi was always like this to her. Hyun-Ae pointed at the screen and slowly voiced her piece, word by word – "You are Lt. Commander and I am only Lieutenant. Why should I deal with all this "first contact" business? As my superior it should be your job!"

"But you did well, didn't you?" – Mira continued to laugh at other girl fit of childish tantrum – "You… Tsk… Hyun-Ae, it seems you forgot that my fleet is only addition to the 497th Research Fleet of yours. You are part of Special Forces while my special forces are part of military. We are rather… Different branches… To put it simply, my 1007th Strike Squadron under your command… Well, not yours directly… Under the fleet director orders…"

"I am not the director of the fleet! Kazama is the director! He is Vice-Admiral to boot!" – This talk started to give Yi a headache. It was hard to argue with that particular Zentradi, who liked to blabber a lot of nonsense just to ditch responsibilities to others, except the battle ones.

"He is dead as far as I know… Other section chiefs are dead as well. So… By elimination, you are our new director… Isn't it nice, Hyun-Ae? You got a promotion!" – The girl in question wanted to strangle that giant blabbering woman but a large difference in physique would make it quite a challenge. She clenched her teeth and balled her fists – "See, you cheered up, Princess…" – Sighing, Mira reassuringly smiled at the young girl – "I know it is hard to swallow but as it is, you are in charge of the 497th Fleet. I sure, the old man will arrive as fast as he can. I know him for a long time, he will never leave his subordinates behind…" – The voice of the woman became gentler and less domineering – "Once again you will be a part of our little family for a little while…"

"Yeah, sure…" – Without further desire to argue about subordination, Hyun-Ae dropped on the captain chair and swayed some images on holographic screen. After several minutes, she looked up at the image of her old friend and sighed – "Thanks, Mira… This bickering got me distracted from my inner demons…"

Hyun-Ae closed her eyes and massaged them her fingers. The long hours started to accumulate, pushing her body and mind into disarray. The chain of command was a useless formality for now since Mira would always act in the best interest for her fleet "princess", the "sleeping beauty" her crew found in the destroyed facility on the Earth under meters of ocean water. Yi could make mistakes in command but a hardened veteran as Mira would be able to fix them on fly…

"Hey, Your Highness… What do you think about these guys?" – The family time had ended. They had to return to business talk. Lt. Commander was frowning while looking sideways, probably at the readings from different scanners or some other data she requested from Yutu.

"They should be fine, I think…" – There was many questionable actions behind the "Guest One" movements and crew responses but overall it was still in the acceptable corridor for the first contact protocols.

"No, Hyun-Ae… I was talking about their entire nation, not that little Zentradi-like officer of theirs and her crew. According to your long distance scanning, they are preparing to battle of sorts. There is amassed force nearby the third planet of the system. And I concerned about that strange anomaly that somehow orbiting close to that rock despite being some sort of energy hole…" – The familiarity in addressing didn't changed the slightly overbearing attitude of Mira, who tried to push her point of view, her military perspective and experience on her superior and "adopted daughter" of sorts. She was careful in nature that allowed her fleet to survive many clashes with uncultured Zentradi for decade she served in the NUNS.

"They looked like backwater space faring nation…" – Hyun-Ae swapped several images and tables from the screen and looked at the data that was presented by her ship's A.I – "They use a variation of anti-matter reactor with liquid type propulsion system for traveling in space. Their weapons are anti-matter in nature and the used lasers for CIWS. You could say, they are on the same technological level as we were during the Space War I."

"Do you think that fleet was made here, in this system?" – Mira asked while putting an index finger on her cheek while reading the columns of numbers – "They have an impressive numbers on the orbit…"

"Doubt it…" – There was at least 16 000 thousand ship strong fleet orbiting the third planet. Even if the planet itself was capable to produce enough materials to build those ships, there were no shipyards to construct them in plausible time. There could be an option to construct them on the planet surface but it would was not an optimal solution.

Hyun-Ae did not detected signatures, specific to anti-matter facilities on the planet surface or anywhere nearby. It would be impossible to fuel such sizable fleet without a large facility dedicated to produce and store anti-matter.

Additionally, with the help from Yutu, she managed to decode both military and civilian signals that they were reading so far. It seemed that the third planet, called quite ordinarily as Aptic III, was under the siege of the Humankind Empire of Abh while being a part of the United Mankind. The Abh military messages were all around preparation for a major defensive battle against enemy fleet that should arrive soon.

Putting everything together was an easy job.

"You think that even though we have more advanced weaponry and defensive systems… These "Humankind Empire of Abh" and "United Mankind" have some sort of faster than light space travel capability unknown to us?"

"I am not just thinking about such possibility. I quite assured that it is a hard reality. I've sent you everything already…" – Mira frowned and make a grimace when she started to read the data. A lot of numbers and schematics were not something the Zentradi commander liked to look at all day long – "I do not know if we can fend off that kind of number of ships…" – There was a slight pause in Hyun-Ae phrasing. She though it over and continued – "This number of ships can't be reliably intercepted on assumption that all their ships are as weak as our variable fighters..."

"Than just shoot them down with your main cannon or reaction missiles!" – It was a straightforward method that was suitable for Zentradi as whole. However, total annihilation of any fleet would mean a lot of trouble whoever side they would take – "Well, I understand that we are in very touchy position but in case of enemy attack we should choose the side that doesn't attack us first. It would be a self-defense and lesson to learn for idiots. Never mind… Still, I wonder… Who are bad guys? The Empire or the United Mankind…"

The United Mankind propaganda was quite severe. Out of many shorts that Yutu was able to decode, the informational ones were… Zero. Though, Hyun-Ae learned some things about the Abh. The first thing was that they were genetically engineered to travel and explore the dangers space… In this regard, they were close to Zentradi as species. The second one that the Abh wanted to monopolize space travel for some unknown purposes. Other things like rebellion against creators or planet wiping operations and many other fairy tales were not reliable at all. Especially planet wiping, considering that the third planet was still hustling and bustling under their conquerors watch without official surrender of the planet.

"We'll see… Not enough information to make a detailed picture about our neighbors in the system…" – Hyun-Ae yawned and shook her head in desperate effort to push drowsiness away.

"Hey… You look pretty beaten up… You should rest. I will watch in your stead…" – Mira worriedly looked at the girl and waved her hand in a friendly shoo gesture – "Get out… Get out… Your old friend and senior will guard your sleep…"

"Just not shoot before you ask a question…"


	4. Chapter 03

**AN:** The diplomacy is not something both side good at. But overall the situation is stable for the time being... This chapter about the thoughts and hardships to properly respond to uknowns during the war. At least I tried it to be like this. Either way, R&R.

 **Chapter 03**

Lafiel was silently sitting in the captain chair while Ekuruya maneuvered "Basroil" over the massive hull of "Chang'E". So far, it was the largest vessel with the same design as the rest of the New United Nation fleet aside mobile stations and the Zentradi battleship.

However, the Abh princess could not think that it was comparable to the Abh own spacecraft. The technology behind her construction was so advanced that despite all efforts it was impossible to detect her with scanners. This technology should not get into hands of the United Mankind at any cost. Even though, the cloaking could be said useless in the Planar Space, it could be used to hide mines and electromagnetic rounds, which in return would make battles one sided since no matter how good pilots and gunners were… It would be impossible to intercept high speed ordinance without support of A.I.

This New United Nations was mystery to her. The name itself was something historical, something prior even the age of exploration. At the same time it meant that it was a union of several planets with unknown technology behind them. Such firepower, defense technology and overall strange design of ships was not really something that was decided on a random whim.

"Captain, we receiving a communication request from Lt. Commander Orbos. Should I connect?" – A quiet voice of Ekuruya, her partner on duty, startled Lafiel, who got too absorbed with her thoughts. However, it took less than a second for the Deca-Commander to regain her composure.

"Connect…"

The bright screen appeared on the bridge with an image of Lt. Commander, sitting on presumably captain chair of her flagship. She was wearing a sturdy looking green colored uniform with several decorations, likely insignia of sorts. The older woman smiled without making any sound and examined her counterpart before smirking, which made Lafiel to frown a little. This Orbos remind her too much of another annoying person…

"I am glad to see you again, Deca-Commander Abriel," – Without any notice, Lt. Commander started to speak – "I have something to discuss with you. Our little princess should be resting now, so it a good time for a little chit-chat."

"Do you want to negotiate behind your superior?" – Lafiel found that kind of talks the most disgusting. She frowned and glared at the screen…

"Watch your mouth, little mouse…" – The tone of the woman on the image became more harsh and overbearing. It seemed that the last question was not to the liking of Lt. Commander – "I am her not to negotiate with you… I am her to ask some questions… And answer some of yours in return. It is a fair trade between us, the little gears in our respective war machines…"

"And why you…"

"Let me be frank with you. I do not like you…" – Orbos slightly tilted her head and put a hand under her cheek in a very carefree manner – "Nevertheless, I am not narrow minded that much to neglect my duty. So, let us be civil and speak like sapient beings."

"I… I think it is alright…" – Such directness left young Abriel speechless for several moments – "As long as it is not some classified information I would answer. I indeed have some questions of my own."

"Fair enough," – Lt. Commnder smiled while showing her teeth in a very disturbing manner. Her attitude shown that she looked down on Lafiel, which heavily contrasted with the one she put up with that civilian officer. It could be unjustified arrogance or a real thing, the true sense of superiority based on the knowledge of one capabilities and the possible retaliation option of the other side. Either way, it would be unwise to provoke ire of this party.

"Could I ask my question first?" – There was one mystery that was bothering the Abh princess for a while after she saw the Lt. Commander. No matter how she looked at it, this overbearing person had looks, smarts and attitude of the Abriels. Was it really a coincidence or just some dark spot in the history of the Empire? She wanted to know the truth behind the similar looks of that Zentradi and the Abriels.

"Of course…" – The woman on the screen lazily waved her hand and added – "I think you want to know who we really are? Since we looked almost identical to each other, at least on the image that transferred between our ships…"

Lafiel remained silent. It was bad enough that the other party was domineering and overbearing but to be read like an open book was extremely hurtful to her pride and unsettling. It took the girl a whole minute to gather her thoughts and carefully respond to that indirect provocation – "Yes, I think it would be nice to know more about you… Zentradi, as far as I remember right?"

"Yeah, like I said, if you say so…" – There was a lot of untold words in this short phrase but Orbos just shook her head and pushed several buttons off-screen on her captain chair – "The most sensitive information is kind of classified and even public one could be dangerous to share with unknown parties so… You should read this first at your spare time."

"What is this?" – Lafiel looked at numerous data that was sent to "Basroil" from the alien ship. Majority of it was texts and images with some videos and audios in formats that were used by Aptic III and Star Forces.

The implication behind it was quite easy to understand. The Zentradi commander pointed out that their forces can easily decode even transmissions that were not compatible with their own hardware. At the same time "Basroil" was not able to get anything, not even a random chatter between New United Nations ships or the Zentradi squadron. It could be an order to cease all useless communications but with the fleet of such size, even with that level of automatization, there should some short transmissions between ship to coordinate some maneuvers.

"As you can see, it is basic information regarding Zentradi and New United Nations alliance. I really don't know what kind of language you are using but images, audio and video should be enough to get a general idea about us," – It was said in quite a serious tone, a heavy contrast to the previous attitude – "I don't know what you are thinking but I want to warn you and your superiors. The space is vast, there are mysteries and dangers you should avoid at all cost. Including us and our allies."

"What do you mean by this?" – Lafiel decided that it was useless to use diplomatic tone when the other party was so direct and dauntless. That kind of people prefer to speak without flowering their words after all.

"Make our little princess sad… And you will pay heavily for this…" – No change of tone, like it was trivial matter for Lt. Commander. She did not even flinched when she said this part – "We, Zentradi, are born in space… We live in space… And we die in space… Somebody like you, who stick to planets and star systems would not be able to understand it…"

The woman on the screen was mocking her, the Abh royalty, but Lafiel managed once again to check her temper. It was obvious that Orbos really despised them for unknown reasons. However, she got a piece of information that was quite interesting for her.

"Well, I think you could think about why I don't like you. When you grow up a little…" – The Zentradi smirked and continued without paying attention to facial expression of Lafiel – "I want to ask you a favor… How about your nation gives us that device you use for faster than light travel…"

"That is impossible!" – A request like this, Lafiel had known the policy of the Empire about interstellar travels. There would be no possibility for such a transaction to take a place. Landers should not posses ships capable of traveling on the Planar Space. Even the Royal family did not have that kind of ships under their name.

"Oh… Are you sure that nothing can be done about it? Our little girl likes to tinker with machines… It would be nice to present something to her as a sign of goodwill from your side…" – The woman leaned closer to the camera, which made her face larger on the screen – "In return, we will not bother to ask about it from that United Mankind, which you are preparing to fend off in this system. Isn't it a good deal… For your Empire…"

It was a threat… Lafiel knew it… The usual respond to such type of negotiation would be ignorance but…

* * *

Lafiel was silently sitting in her chair on the bridge while absentmindedly looking at the text on her personal screen. Even though Orbos deliberately removed all date stamp on documents, audios and videos the story behind was too fantastic to be reality.

"What do you think, captain?" – Samson had read some of those documents as well, like all his fellow officers. While there was an assured exaggeration in them it was obvious that these Zentradi and New United Nations guys were tenacious bastards. After losing their home world during initial conflict with another nation they launched desperate counter-offensive with only thousands of ships against billions and won. He knew that the true Abh nobility would prefer to die instead of surrender but these guys were real nuts, completely crazy people.

Their survival plan was even more unbelievable. They abandoned the safety of the planets and begun unending voyage between stars to preserve their culture…

"They are not Landers…" – Lafiel quietly voiced her opinion. She always thought that Abh had been the only humankind nation, which should own the stars, but somewhere there in the darkness of space dozen of colonization fleets travel alone and fending themselves against unknowns of the galaxy.

Now, the Abh princess could understand the arrogant attitude that Lt. Commander shown to her. What a joke… The Humankind Empire of Abh always thought that landers are not suitable for space because they were afraid of leaving the surface of their planets. However, Abh themselves never traveled into depth of space, far away from the planets they thought was not a necessity to them. And there is a nation, relatively small but incredibly strong willed and proud, denying the necessity of planets and star systems aside the resource mining.

"No kidding, Captain… They are not Landers no matter how you look at them" – There was a tone of true respect in an opinion of the Chief Engineer – "Look at their autonomous fleet. Even though it is not impressive outside but after reading all this shit I kind of want to learn from them. These guys can travel for decades in the space without visiting any star system. They should have incredibly advanced power source. We have to make them our allies and… Not to be rude, the Abh policy about not making any alliances would kind of land us into trouble if they join the United Mankind."

"I am more concerned about their faster than light capabilities," – Sobaash looked through documents and despite lack of any information about the Planar Space there were hints here and there that Zentradi and New United Nations had some method of interstellar travel outside relativistic physics. He could not find any real evidence but it was mentioned that their 25th Long Range Colonization Fleet had met true aliens and even fought against them to truce. It was clear that the 497th Research Fleet was not a part of that colonization fleet.

"Do your really believe that they had some way to travel faster than light?" – The troubled expression on Jinto face showed his anxiety. Initially he thought that after some negotiation these newcomers could be absorbed into the Empire with favorable terms for them but if they truly had a different method of faster than light travel…

"It is only a speculation but why not? We never met any alien life forms while they had met several already and even fought tooth and nail with them in wars," – Shrugging his shoulders Sobaash smiled at Jinto and pointed on the screen where the massive battleship "Chang'E" was hardly visible – "While our nations and home worlds were living peacefully…"

"They fought for their existence against enemies unknown," – Solemnly, Lafiel ended the phrase. The five great nations fought with each other and even started this war. Probably the last war humanity would ever fight if the Empire would win. At least it should be like this in theories. Everything was dwarfed in comparison what New United Nations endured so far. Aliens are really existed and they even had superior technology based on limited evidence. Of course, if it was all truth…

"We are receiving transmission from HQ," – Ekuruya flatly announced her piece while redirecting the message to Lafiel's screen according to its header.

The Abh princess frowned in frustration after she was done with reading it. She sighed and sent it over to her four officers and motioned with her eyes to give her their thoughts about the message.

"Our Admiral left everything to us… Huh…" – It was so direct and annoying that Samson had no words to describe his feelings. The Bebaus twins really did not want to bother with possibly new nation with different technological base, though they asked to negotiate about trading technologies if possible…

On the other hand, everybody understood that HQ could not spare too much time to deal with New United Nations and Zentradi despite their possible ability to shake the semi-balance of power in the galaxy. The Operation "Phantom Flame" could end in failure if the Empire would lose Aptic III. Admiral Bebaus had chosen the most important task at hand and spare no thoughts about any distraction or secondary objectives. It shown that he was capable commander regardless rumors about him. Still, it left them hanging there with full authority to negotiate…

"I think we should stall…" – No matter what, Lafiel could not decide objectively at this time. Sobaash pointed out that it would be better to probe intentions of other party and their willingness to negotiate instead of direct negotiation. This way they could avoid to make any promises that would not be accepted later by the Empress, which could in return worsen relationship with seemingly overwhelmingly powerful nation, at least in terms of weapon and defense systems.

"Admiral Bebaus mentioned that we could try to hire them to bolster our defenses in the system," – Jinto shook his head in disbelief. It was such unrealistic idea to involve the third party into their war without any explanation.

"It is impossible… They don't need to do anything to get everything they want," – Logically speaking, it was not impossible but Sobaash was a realist. He understood that this Research Fleet can just wait how the battle would end and negotiate with winner to get the most profit from the situation.

Lafiel closed her eyes and thought everything over. Sobaash seemed right. Even if their fleet would be destroyed they could negotiate with the United Mankind and get everything they want. While Orbos looked really like Abh, the director was as human looking as possible. Additionally, these Zentradi were still under control of their creators…

"Hmm… We are ambassadors than…" – Ekuruya, who was silently looking at her screen, mumbled – "If so… We could ask for their protection as ambassadors from foreign nation. This way this fleet would be at odds with the United Mankind…"

"That could work but…" – Sobaash paused and continued after a while – "In this case we would be likely forced to surrender "Basroil" to New United Nations."

The last words made Lafiel to ball her hands into fists. In the worst case scenario it would be the only possible option but… She clearly saw that her pride means nothing in the face of dangers that could emerge in case of alliance between the United Mankind and New United Nations.

However, they still did not lose the battle – "We will think about it if the enemy will be able to snatch the system from our hands. At current situation, I agree with our Chief Aviator. We have to probe for every weakness we could exploit later in official negotiations."

"Captain, I don't want to crush your hopes, but these guys already stated what they want from us. I doubt there is any other option they will negotiate with us…" – Samson remembered the angry look of Lafiel when he returned from the rest. Jinto managed to inquire the reason…

"She is military officer under the command of the director…" – The needs of civilians and soldiers were different, their thought process should be different as well. Lafiel believed that she could persuade the director of the 497th Research Fleet without heeding to Orbos wishes – "This black-haired girl seems to be less warring…"

"And… What does it give us?"

"A communication request from NUNS "Avenger". Should I connect?" – There quiet aviator turned head to her captain, waiting for the decision.

"Connect…"

"Hello, there…" – Yi Hyan-Ae wore a business-like smile while wearing a very tight plug suit, that looked somewhat similar to standard issued uniforms of Star Forces. What made it strange; it looked like the girl in question was in some kind of liquid, even though it did not affect her voice the noticeable visuals were easy to recognize.

"Ah. The director…" – Lafiel politely returned greetings.

"I just wanted to inform your, since it is probably something you would want to know…" – The girl looked somewhere for several seconds and seriously said afterwards – "The battle had started…"


	5. Chapter 04

AN: This chapter introduce us the Abh military tactic and Zentradi thoughts about such tactic in general. We finally introduced to part "Chang'E" control system as well. R&R. I hope you will enjoy this non-action chat...

 **Chapter 04-A**

The battle for the third planet in the system had started. Hyun-Ae looked at holographic projection that demonstrated the battlefield in real time despite being 1.7 AU away from it. There was a second projection that had a delay around 14 minutes which was transmitted to "Guest One" as a good will gesture. The delay was implemented to hide the faster than light scan capability of her ships. It was never wrong to be cautious regarding your ability to spy on potential enemy.

Floating inside the control tube in case of emergency, the girl was tried to analyze the battle that unfold hundred thousand kilometers away from her. Even though, she was not a professional military officer, she fought dozen mock battles against Mira during her brief stay on "Armadillo" in the past as well as hundreds of strategic games in virtual machine.

The defensive fleet position blockaded the anomaly by encircling it, which made Hyun-Ae a little dumbfounded since it something she could expect in the naval battle but not in the space one. By her estimation, while fighting in 3D environment, you should make a sphere around besieged object to ensure maximum firepower from all angles. The other possibility was to create small groups of ships and position them around in a way to maximize kill zone and minimize possibility of friendly fire. The first method could be effective in case your weapons did not have range or firepower to ensure collateral damage on the other side of your sphere, the second one is useful if you had something like super-dimensional or heavy-quantum cannon to establish massive cones of death.

"What do you think about their formation?" – She sent a text message to Mira, who was lazily sitting on her chair and viewing the initial stages of the battle. The woman reacted with a smile and sent her response.

"Greenhorns," – Without any sugaring her words, the hardened combat veteran made a conclusion based on many battles she survived so far. However, several seconds later she added – "Still, we don't know what kind of technological level they have and how this anomaly is working. Maybe it is not an optimal formation but it could be acceptable based on their military knowledge. Unlike us, they probably never fought really massive fast pacing battles. We should look more…"

The numerous signatures started to appear from the anomaly. They accelerated in all direction in straight lines without performing any evasive maneuvers.

"They look like simplistic space fighters but they behavior remind me of our missiles," – The size was not right, at least they were much bigger in comparison to their own anti-ship and anti-fleet missiles, even more larger than their planet-killer warheads. Scanners estimated their mass to be around an entire variable fight wing.

After several minutes everything became clear, that was a missile barrage and not a fighter screen that should have to bother enemy fighters and capital ships. Anti-matter reactions were detected in large numbers across the battlefield. The same class ships as "Guest One" tried to intercept them before missiles could reach the larger capital ships.

"Those explosion fireballs suggest that their yield is equal to ours but the missiles themselves an order of magnitude larger than ours. Your thoughts, Hyun-Ae? – Mira sent a message while looking completely bored on the screen.

"They came out of that anomaly. I think that they had some kind of device that allowed such transportation. You should remember that even our fold drives for variable fighters are quite large in comparison to actual missiles and warheads. Additionally, they need a lot of propellant to travel that fast in space. It is standard rocket science problem," – It was clear for Hyun-Ae that both sides had engines that could not be compared with their own.

"It seems that enemy is not that numerous," – The girl voiced her opinion and looked for reaction from the bridge of "Guest One". Guessing was all good and nice but they could ask for an explanation from someone knowledgeable, as long as they would be ready to provide precise information.

The Deca-Commander, who was frowning the entire duration of ongoing battle, looked back on the communication screen and flatly said – "According to our intelligence enemy had advantage in numbers up to 1 to 15. They want to annihilate us without suffering major casualties…"

For Hyun-Ae it sound like a nice strategy but the reading gave her doubts. No matter how she looked, the defensive fleet had over 16000 ships while enemy launched only around 20 000 missiles per interval. It was not enough to saturate CIWS of defenders enough to inflict major damage. If enemy had over 200000 ships they should launch at least 500 000 missiles at once. With this numbers the defending fleet would be obliterated instantly while survivors could be cleaned up by winners after they would emerge from anomaly.

Was this anomaly even more tight choke point of their interstellar travel than she had anticipated? This would mean that if they would backstab the current defenders and establish front line in front of this bright object, the warp gate of sorts, they would easily control the system.

"You have quite nasty thoughts, Princess…" – In the corner of her eyesight appeared a message from Mira, who was smirking on the screen. This Zentradi was quite good at reading emotions and thoughts of people close to her – "Let me guess, you thought it would be nice to have a planetary system where you could relax and breath fresh air instead of recycled one?"

"Do you think it is possible? Theoretically speaking…" – Without proper combat experience, Hyun-Ae could only ask for opinion from the Zentradi commander. Simulations were one thing; the real experience was another after all.

"I think it is doable… Even with your ship alone," – The older woman had a predatory smile on her face – "This fortress class was designed to wipe out fleets in seconds but it was claimed a failure because of its price and maintenance hell. No saying how hard it was to control with manual operators instead of your fancy A.I. You should remember… Your ship could probably go toe to toe with any Zentradi Grand Fleet with 48 Quarter-class Heavy-Quantum cannons in 16 towers, not to mention the main gun and all nasties that hidden inside the hull… It is just…"

"We don't have the right to intervene or start conflicts first?" – She did not really want to fight but only want to be reassured about their position.

While they were texting each other, the battle situation slightly changed. The frontline was pushed back by unending waves of enemy missiles. The frigate-look-alike ships lost a considerable number of comrades withdrew under protection of large battleships, which purpose was… Missile interception? It was a very strange fleet composition but not unheard even for New United Nations Spacy. However, the history shown that variable fighters and Ghosts were better suited for such missions.

"Guard ships intervened…" – Hyun-Ae heard a short-breath mumble from the Deca-Commander on the screen. The Abh captain had a very concerned face and continued to whisper something to herself while gripping the arms of her chair.

"Is it bad?" – The Abh looked surprised when she heard the question from the girl. She thought that only her crew could hear her concerns.

"It means that Assault ships like ours failed to intercept missiles and casualties started to became unacceptable," – A young man who was standing beside his captain answered the question and smiled at Hyun-Ae – "Our admiral wants to save high-maneuverable assault ship to counter enemy ones. Otherwise it would be hard to retaliate when enemy would finally emerge from the Sord…"

"Jinto!" – The short outburst from the captain made Hyun-Ae smile. Maybe this man said something touchy or maybe the captain herself disliked the fact that he spoke with her? It was interesting and relaxing sight to sore eyes.

Maybe she could help them? It was left for her own discretion to decide where and with whom she can fight. Nevertheless, it seemed that the defensive fleet would lose if this continues and reinforcements would not arrive. It was only a matter of time.

In case, the new masters of the system would be unfriendly, she had to be prepared…

* * *

"Synchronization in process…" – The single sentence was flashing in front of Hyun-Ae, who adjusted her neuro EX-suit and slightly stretched her arms and legs according to instruction on the halo-screen. She thought it would be good to prepare for possibility of a confrontation beforehand, in case a winner would be not so friendly.

The battle near the third planet was raging for several hours already and the Abh fleet was slowly pushed back by the invading force, though no ship appeared from the anomaly or the Sord, how it was called by the young man. The face of a young captain of "Guest One" was not something nice to see during the last hours so she disconnected under the excuse of tiredness and begun the synchronization.

"Neuro-link had been established successfully. Synchronization level reached required 95%. A.I. support to lessen the burden on the pilot brain had been successfully started. All systems are green," – Yutu slowly announced the progress in re-activation of neuro control. The screen duplicated the audio with several images and diagrams that shown current level of "Chang'E" startup procedures.

"Identification had been successful. Name: Hyun-Ae, Yi. Military Rank: Lieutenant. Welcome back, captain." – A.I. support sub-system activated and greeted her with numbers of sentences on the screen. It started standard check-up of a pilot mental and physical state.

"No life signs were detected on the board. Shutting off air-circulation to preserve oxygen and reduce chances of random fire," – The main A.I. continued battle preparations step by step, decompressing the corridors and rooms that were not used by humans – in the current state it was meant that the entire ship was airless. Yutu was thorough in its work. Sector by sector of the ship green lights turned red and soon only the bridge and nearby corridors were left alone.

"The pilot mental state is in acceptable range. The pilot physical state is in acceptable range. Neuro-link activation is approved," – The basic health check-up was completed and Hyun-Ae felt a little pain in several places, where neuro-sensors had connected to her body through her neuro EX-suit.

"All shutters are closed. All non-combat sub-systems had been shut down. Waiting for operators' response on battle posts," – These were the last steps of battle preparation – "No operator response was received. Rerouting control over all weapon system to the pilot."

"The synchronization process reached 100%. Captain, the ship is under your control. Awaiting your orders," – The darkness of control tube changed by the darkness of space, with a little bright dots of stars and small metallic reflection from the fleet ships. It felt like floating in the depth of space without any restriction.

Several seconds later augmented reality user interface activated and all NUNS vessels were marked with small green circles with the names and general status. A small spherical 3D map appeared to her left with all ships in disproportional sizes. Another hologram was hovering to her right with "Chang'E" miniature, which shown the current state of all weapon systems. At the current time all weapon system had blue icons over them that meant A.I. control.

Hyun-Ae pointed at the second left forward tower.

"The tower 1-1-2 control had been rerouted to the pilot. Adjusting sights," – A small screen appeared with current aim and possible angles for tower heavy quantum cannons.

"Search for threats," – It was a standard command for A.I. to look up for possible targets that could endanger the ship or the fleet in general. Of course, the result was known to her from the start. Or at least she thought it was.

"Vajra Battleship had been detected. The current status is unknown. The range to target is 13.9 AU, at the edge of the system." – The hologram image of Vajra Battleship appeared. According to the reading the alien vessel was not moving or performing any action and basically was watching and listening.

Listening!

"Disable Fold Wave amplification transmitter!" – It was device that could interpret Vajra intentions into understandable words but it was the same device that could amplify her own thoughts and transfer it to Vajra as signal. It was, like many other things on this ship, an experimental machine with very vague results.

"Fold Wave amplification transmitter had been disabled. The efficiency of the fleet control had been dropped by 47%," - The Vajra translation ability was a side effect, the main purpose of it was to establish interplanetary communications.

"Permission to fire at enemy," – A.I. support sub-system received her thoughts of fear and marked the Vajra Battleship as possible enemy. Even the tower 1-1-2 had turned to the direction of it.

"Do not open fire. Mark it as neutral," – It was good that the current generation of neuro-link did not fire without confirmation like it was in previous models. Considering the possible results of misfire from heavy-quantum cannon, it was the most intelligent feature in A.I.

"An incoming transmission from "Guest One". Connect?" – Another pop-up appeared within her field of view.

"Connect," – Hyun-Ae wanted to sigh but inside the control tube filled with bio-supporting liquid it was impossible. She could guess why the other party wanted to speak with her.

"Director, something is going on?" – The blue-haired captain looked a little concerned and wary. The usual young man was presented to the right of the girl as well. He looked a little more careless and kind of stupid with that reassuring smile on his face.

"Nothing to be concerned. Our… Fortress detected a massive asteroid and was going to intercept it," – She almost blurted out that "Chang'E" was basically a super dimensional fortress. At the same time she ordered Yutu to find a suitable asteroid candidate with her thought. Second later, the A.I. shown on the screen a large 5.7 km in diameter nickel-iron piece of rock and transmitted data about it to "Guest One".

"Hm… However, according to your own calculation it should bypass us on the safe distance…" – It seemed that the captain Abriel was not a complete fool and found some inconsistency in this story.

"Well, I ordered A.I. to find any possible threat to the fleet and it aimed at it right after finding it," – Without trying to find a sophisticated excuse, Hyun-Ae said the first thing that came to her mind. She wanted to bang her head at nearby wall but at her current neuro-linked state it was impossible. Another good thing was that A.I. did not interpret it as an order to ram into some solid object.

"Ok. It seems plausible enough. Considering that nothing else has happened and your goodwill toward us, I want to apologize for my suspicions," – The Deca-Commander warmly smiled and slightly nodded as a form of bow. The man beside her whispered something to her and the girl frowned but seemingly agreed. She turned to the screen – "Director, I wanted to ask you something about Zentradi… Could you clear some things to us?"

"I don't know if I could really answer those questions of your but be my guests," – While she was speaking, she waved her hand and opened a menu. She pointed out at engine section of the menu and chose all appeared options.

"Who are Zentradi to you?" – The question was out of the blue. Still, Hyun-Ae had her own suspicions about one specific adult Zentradi who liked to run her mouth from time to time about non-essential things.

"They are artificial soldiers who were created by our "ancestors" to fight in thier interplanetary war. As it is some of them are still loyal to us, others do not recognize us as "ancestors" and would likely wage wars against us," – She said the most abridged version of the story behind Zentradi while checking propellant that was still left on the ship. It was lucky chance that there was left over 90% of propellant for the engines and almost 100% for the small craft. In the worst case, she would be forced to fold to the planet and acquire propellant there.

"So…"

"Well, I want to be clear. We, the New United Nations, do not care that Abhs are bio-droids since, let us be truthful – it doesn't matter to us. As long as you do not try to attack us and play fairly… Just don't provoke Zentradi, they kind of very emotional after our internal conflict from almost century ago…" – Hyun-Ae was not interested in this type of conversation that led nowhere. She looked at the screen and flatly declared – "It seems your enemy decided to show their face…"

The readings were showing that a large number of small ships emerged from the Sord and started to close the distance with defenders. Right after them large vessels had appeared, slowly breaching the encirclement around the anomaly. No matter how Hyun-Ae looked at the situation, she predicted that defenders would be routed in the next several hours no matter how good their resistance would be. They still manage to hold out because they still semi-controlled the choke point but the enemy vanguard was slowly encroaching itself into enemy lines forcing a close quarter combat…

"I suppose you will be with us for much longer time… Deca-Commander Abriel," – There was no need to say this to the other party who looked pale and enraged at the same time.

At the same time Hyun-Ae could not push the Vajra Battleship out of her mind. How it managed to get there without being detected by them. Was it really here before they arrived? Why nobody in the system found them than?


	6. Chapter 05

**AN:** Here is a new chapter, the "negotiations" one. We could learn differences in views regarding some different aspects of life for both NUNG and HEoA. I hope that I described characters of Dusanyu and Cipair as close as possible. If not, please do not be too harsh. Either way, read and review. I am interested in your opinion about the "deal" that Abhs proposed to Hyun-Ae...

 **Chapter 05**

It was quite boring to orbit the planet without any sort of entertainment like dramas, TV-shows or virtual games. Especially if you have to do it alone for an entire day on board of the large four kilometers long warship like "Chang'E" that was still in some state of disrepair after the incident. The only good thing was that there were some problems that required the attention of the "captain" to solve.

"So, are you telling me that we somewhere in the future?" – Mira chuckled after hearing the strange narration from the black-haired girl, currently adjusting her neuro EX-suit with hologram menu and a multi-tool.

"Yes, according to Yutu's calculation, the position of nearby stars suggests that we are currently in 4200 A.D., plus or minus a century. I tried to contact the Earth but received no response as well. New United Nations Headquarters are probably destroyed or non-existent in the first place…" – Without turning her face from the sophisticated piece of machinery, Hyun-Ae slowly explained it to her old friend their current predicament.

"What do you mean non-existent?" – It was a very strange wording. The older Zentradi commander could not truly understand the meaning behind this phrase and glared at the girl, who completely ignored it.

"I meant that I have a very bizarre theory, which should fill the holes in everything we encountered so far," – After several minutes of silence the girl continued with her explanation and closed the menu of her EX-suit. She slowly tested movements and feedback of artificial muscles and sensors before standing up.

Hyun-Ae walked to a seemingly random part of the bridge wall behind the entrance into control tube and waved her hand. The bluish hologram keyboard appeared in front of her. Without further delay, the girl tapped her personal password and stood still for security system to scan her retina and biological measures. The wall opened up and the line of military equipment moved out – the emergency self-defense arsenal for the bridge crew on duty.

"So, what did you thought in your free time?" – Sighing, Mira asked the question that had to be asked just to satisfy the girl on her screen. Such antics were common for her from the times she discovered that child deep in an underwater station on the Earth. It was probably a side-effect of almost century-long cryo-stasis.

"I think we dropped down into completely different time-line," – Hyun-Ae grabbed a standard officer pistol and checked it according to her training. After inspecting the gun, she loaded it with a clip, armed it and put into holster on her right side. Several additional clips and stun grenades were placed into a case as well as an electric rod – "The first one, the Vajra Battleship we found at the edge of the system. No matter how much we kept contact with their remnants in Galaxy, they would never move into inner part of it after initial Vajra Conflict with the Frontier fleet. So, there should be no reason for them to hang out that deep inside."

"Maybe, we managed to get into cooperation with them. Two thousand cycles make a lot of time, you know…" – It was a really wild theory. Even for Mira, who had talked with many crazy scientists in her life, courtesy of her "princess".

"You see, these guys, Abh… They did't recognize you at all. Like you never attacked the Earth in the first place," – Mira cringed at these words but nodded in acceptance – "I kind of doubt that something dramatic like "The Rain of Death" would be completely wiped out from the history of humanity."

The doors to the bridge opened and Hyun-Ae walked out from the room, where she was confined for several days. The girl checked her position on her augmented reality holographic visor and started to march toward the hangar bay while trying to avoid blocked nodes.

"Additionally, their faster than light technology is too different from ours. I could not really understand their principles without getting a piece of equipment responsible for an actual transfer," – It was a true mystery, despite the fact that she managed to find some records in the ship archives about luminescent phenomena like the one orbiting close to the third planet. No real research was done about them. All probes that were sent into it were destroyed by some kind of force; even the full-barrier was not able to withstand it.

"Overall, if we put their interstellar technology aside, we have an upper hand in everything else. Our materials are especially," – The walking from the bridge to the closes hangar bay was an annoying mater on foot. Hyun-Ae checked again her position and turned to the closest functional and safe lift to get to the hangar floor – "I want to trade some of our equipment for their interstellar device…"

"Do you think it is a good idea?" – Mira had her own doubts about this transaction. If they are really that far ahead of locals what could they actually gain during the trade?

"Old man said that I should act accordingly to situation, so you could say that it would be my proposal," – Of course, she could not make such decisions on her own; she contacted NUNS "Manticore". Rear Admiral Pavlov said after giving it some thought that they should try to act more peacefully if possible. However, he gave her permission to blast them to atoms if they would try to use threats. Overall, the main escort fleet had some problems with spare parts and could not complete repairs fast…

"That old grandpa is too irresponsible. Even by my standards," – Despite said words, the Zentradi understood the logic behind. The woman sighed inwardly and continued – "So, that is why you agreed to meet with them on their flagship? Isn't it too risky?"

"Sheesh, you are like mom," – Hyun-Ae reached the hangar bay and looked around. It seemed that all VFs survived the incident without too much damage. Still, she had to reroute some repair bots to fix one for her. It was an old, slightly modified VF-01 EX-N, designed especially for her, more accurately to test a new scaled down model of the neuro-link control – "I thought everything out. I had an appropriate technology for this?"

"Are you sure about this? The last time you had an appropriate technology… Somebody slept in cryo-stasis for an entire century," – Mira reminded the girl about her bitter past to push some emotions out of her. Because of her illness, parents signed her for an experimental cryo-stasis technology test run, which resulted in her prolonged sleep, like a sleeping beauty from the fairy tales…

"This time I was the one who helped to develop it. And…" – With a smile on her face, Hyan-Ae moved the floating screen in front of her – "I have a dependable "older sister" to get me out of a frying pan."

"Ha… You flattering is awful as it was in the past, princess," – Despite her words, Mira smirked and said – "Alright, I will try to get your ass as a whole if something will happen. Just don't die instantly in case of failed negotiations…"

"No need to worry, that what I am doing right now to prevent from happening," – While continuing speaking through holographic interface, the girl opened the door to the armory and removed the protective glass from the equipment she was interested in – "As you see I would be protected by our top-notch full barrier system. It is cumbersome for normal pilots but in my case it would not be a real problem…"

"I remember that your EX-suit had an experimental personal fold displacement device…" – It was thoroughly tested for the last decade to save pilots whose fighters got destroyed in combat and move them through fold to a nearby capital ship. There was a problem of serious mental trauma with some test subjects after using it. Others outright had suffered some physical injuries.

"I would try to grind my way to VF without trying to rely on it. I kind of don't want to become a vegetable for now…" – Hyun-Ae lightly laughed off the concern from the older woman and adjusted cuirass to her EX-suit as well as an actual helmet – "Everything should be ok. I like a walking tank in this kind of armor, you know… Without big mean gun though…"

"Ok, my Ace is waiting you outside… Azler volunteered to escort you to this mission…"

"Yeah, yeah… Azler should shock everybody when she will get out of her Queadluun-Rhea. Though, I kind of don't understand why you, Zentradi, like to stick with older models of your power armor?" – With a light joke, the girl belted herself in pilot chair and closed cockpit.

"Says the one who prefer a century old VF-01…"

* * *

"How should we deal with these Landers?" – Prince Dusanyu closed his eyes and leant back in his chair. This dilemma gave him a massive headache since standard procedures would be foolish in case everything his niece, Lafiel, brought with her was true. He had briefly spoken with these landers current leader, Princess Yi as far as he heard it right, and scrupulously read everything so far, even the text report of all dialogues with this unknown nation ships.

"I would suggest do not call them Landers, Your Highness. They will sure take offense and it will make negotiations harder. We have to leave a good impression on them," – A serious voice came from the prince's right hand and chief-of-staff, Admiral Kenesh. She slightly turned her head to her superior and evenly continued – "They seem to have technology beyond ours. They traveled in space without knowledge of Yuanon particle, which means that they left before it was discovered."

"Still, they are not Abh. How should I address them?" – There was some irritation in Dusanyu's tone. He clearly understood that the New United Nations, as the name suggested, was likely a union of several planets, nations. It clearly showed that they had some kind of interstellar travel method, which did not use Yuanon particles, in other words they did not use Planar Space for their travels. Something like this should not get into hands of United Mankind.

"Since we appointed a direct negotiation aboard our flagship with their princess… How about you will call her… "Princess Yi"? It will at least satisfy their commoners…" – It was obvious that Cipair had no real solution to this dilemma as well. She had a very limited diplomatic experience and could not give any useful advice in such situation where a delicacy was needed.

"Hm… So, you are telling me that I should speak with this little girl as with my peer?" – Such an unbelievable request came out from the mouth of his chief-of-staff. The prince opened his eyes and looked at Kenesh, who silently looked back at him waiting for his remark, which did not come. Dusanyu sighed in frustration – "That so frustrating…"

"Actually, according to the data she was born over two thousand years ago, before the age exploration," – The woman dramatically paused and flatly added – "It means she is older than the Empire itself. Of course, the records saying that she was in cryo-sleep for almost a century and if we consider time dilation she should not be a millenniums old granny. However, no matter what, she is the oldest person on their fleet. Maybe that is why she is Royalty of sorts…"

"Because she the only true lander on their fleet?" – With a smirk, Dusanyu closed his eyes again – "I have read files about their Space War I. Despite many clearly smart corrections and edits I got an impression that they had the same problem as our creators in the past."

"Yes, Your Highness. I noticed this too. They tried to hide that their Space War I, which devastated their planet was a war against their own creation, Zentradi. They had won because some of Zentradi never betrayed their Masters…" – No change of intonation, Kenesh approved her superior theory but still though it would be best to add – "However, Your Highness, I advise you not to mention this during negotiations, especially if those Zentradi will be present. According to records of communications between Deca-Commander Abriel and Lt. Commander of Zentradi fleet Orbos, Zentradi despise traitors and any hint of their brothers' treachery would likely sour the mood."

"Is diplomacy always so hard to follow?" – In the past, there was no need for such careful preparations. They could always rely on force to shut up those pesky Landers and leave them to their own devices if they continue being uncooperative. This New United Nations irritated him to such degrees and he just could not deal with them like always because of possible consequences.

"Of course, Your Highness. Sometimes diplomacy could be managed your way but sometimes it has to be more like trading, careful and smart," – A smile bloomed on the Cipair's face when she heard a suppressed anger in the words of the prince.

"Do you really believe in their capabilities?" – This was a second important question on mind of Dusanyu. Everything they were currently planning was based on the assumption that the New United Nations could clearly display the force they declared to use.

"Yes. I think they were not fooling us about their firepower. It could be a bluff but if we look carefully at the reaction of their princess. She was not even impressed by the size of our fleet," – This theory was not without a flaw as well. However, Admiral Kenesh believed that in this case their opponents were spending actors with unfazed reaction in every situation – "I suppose their claim of fighting a war against billions of ships is an exaggeration… Still, their attitude toward our fleet suggests that they saw and fought fleets of much greater scale than ours in the past. This means that they really have some kind of an exotic weapon that could allow them to deal with such large fleet with their small numbers. Their footage had shown effects of their ground to orbit superweapon - the Grand Cannon. It is an impressive weapon system that would make orbital defense platforms useless…"

"But it is a ground-based weapon. They clearly had nothing like this on their ships. After all they were foolish enough to feed us the information about its size," – Dusanyu could imagine that such weapon directed toward any Sord would make the said Sord completely sealed against any invasion force that could try to attack the planet with it on the surface.

"They had even more exotic weapon. Unlike us, it seems they fought true alien life form with superior technology. It forced them to adapt in order to survive since communications were impossible," – Cipair nodded toward one operator who pushed several buttons and presented a disfigured planet with almost third of its body destroyed – "The New United Nations call it Dimension Eater. Based on its performance our technicians onboard theorized that they could generate micro black hole with calculated event horizon. With such ridiculous technology on their side they could destroy any fleet of ours if we become hostile toward them."

"But they never mentioned their faster than light technology and they are interested in ours," – Such an advanced civilization should be able to discover Yuanon particle by itself and theorize time-space generator as well over thousands of years.

"I assume that they won their wars but their home worlds were devastated. They could lose a lot knowledge that was not really essential to military…" – Admiral Kenesh stopped and corrected herself when her superior glared at her like he saw a complete idiot – "My mistake… It is probably their faster than light technology is not very effective. This is why they want ours."

"Should the Empire give them it or not? What do you think, Kenesh?" – This one transaction would likely appear during the soon to happen negotiations. Considering the general rule… The Humankind Empire of Abh would not sell the technology behind their faster than light space travel but the New United Nations clearly had one of their own and just want to improve their own spacefaring capabilities. He wanted a lot of technologies that could give the Empire upper hand in upcoming battles as well.

"We have no right to decide something like this. Only the Empress could allow it after consultation with the council," – Despite what she said, Kenesh clearly understood the underlying message in the prince's words. If they did not trade Planar Space travel technology the only other source who would sell it to them would be United Mankind. It was a clear as crystal clean water that the ones who would trade it to the New United Nations could in return get a small part of their technology in return – "However, in my own opinion, we should trade with them. I doubt that they would give us their most advanced weapons and defense systems – they don't look like idiots. Still, they could sell arms that we have already like laser cannons or technology behind some of their engines."

"Such a dangerous existence appeared. They can easily overturn the tide of war if everything they declared is true," – Dusanyu opened his eyes and stood up from his chair.

"Your Highness?" – Kenesh looked dumbfounded at the prince.

"The princess will grace us with her presence. I should appear in attire that would not shame the name of Abriel and Abh…"

"The New United Nations shuttle? The New United Nations shuttle had asked for permission to dock in our hangar as well as its escort ship." – An operator loudly informed the Imperial Admiral and his chief-of-staff.

"Let them in…" – After giving a simple order, Abriel Dusanyu left the bridge but before he had done it, he commented – "Kenesh, what are you standing here for… Dress up accordingly…"

* * *

"It is a very strange design for a transport shuttle," – The small, even smaller than their own mines, spacecraft docked inside interior hangar bay. Its size dumbfounded usually stoic Abriel Dusanyu. Even more confusing was a fact that at least one third of its volume looked like it was dedicated to various weapon systems. There were even two large barreled cannons overshadowing the pilot cockpit and some containers were attached bellow large protruding wings, likely some type of miniature missiles.

"I think the escort ships is even more spectacular," – Admiral Kenesh nodded toward the large purple colored "something", which resembled humanoid with extremely long limbs and large spherical shoulders. Each leg had individual thruster with additional thrusters at the back – showing its dedication for maneuverable combat. There was a gun barrel at the back on pivoting mount and each arm had some kind of weapon as well. Additionally, she spotted that some parts of the escort ship had hatches that could be opened and could hide additional armaments – "These… It is hard to believe but I think what we see now could prove that these people had fought for their existence for prolonged time. Everything is militarized to such degree…"

"I had never thought that we, Abh, would be able to find the other kins of stars… The problem is that we are explorers, researchers and traders while they look more like warrior nation…" – The shuttle docked safely and it cockpit opened to reveal another abnormality. Despite a fact that the hangar was pressured to normal breathable atmosphere, the pilot herself was wearing some kind of space suit. Such behavior resembled him Landers, who were afraid of decompression and out of fear were wearing protective suits.

While the prince was pondering about the situation and Cipair Kenesh was wondering why she had to wear a form dress, the pilot jump down on the hangar floor with a loud metallic clamp. The visiting princess straighten up and everybody could clearly see a very disproportionally thing humanoid figure clad in layers of protective armor. The white-blue color scheme made it look somewhat dignified with random golden lines here and there.

"Excuse me for my appearance," – An opaque helmet of the guest turned transparent and a familiar to Dusanyu and Cipair face appeared behind the glass. The girl raised her right hand and lightly tapped on her own space suit – "The rules are rules, they were written in blood. So, it is a protective measure regarding the possible biological contamination. I would like to understand that it is a standard protocol and not a question of truth…"

"Well… We understand that rules are rules after all and will not take it as an offense, Princess Yi," – As a chief-of-staff, Kenesh was quick with her thinking and replied as polite as possible. She had read about biological warfare from the books and even though Abh considered such methods barbaric their guest could not know this. It actually made her a little more calm in mind since such behavior proved high level of intelligence on other side.

"Yes, Princess Yi. We, Abh, could understand the need of strict rules during wartimes as well, so we do not take offense in your appearance," – With a very stiff smile, the prince slightly nodded and added – "We probably should move from docks to the audience room for the formal negotiations…" – The man looked at the purple humanoid ship that still continued to float in the hangar space without landing and docking – "Your bodyguard?"

"Azler, please…" – Hyun-Ae frowned when she heard that those aliens called her "princess" but silently agreed to be called like this since she had no truthful knowledge about social structure of Abh. She waved her hand and asked the Zentradi pilot to leave Queadluun-Rhea to show off and surprise her peers.

"Understood!" – The escort ship landed on the hangar floor and a quiet sound of decompression came from it. A large forward portion of the purple humanoid space craft moved and opened up, leaving a large cockpit in clear view for all presented. There was a giant woman sitting inside the humanoid ship with a tight protective suite that emphasized each curve of her body. She saluted to her commander and playfully winked to confused crewmembers of Sankau.

"As you see, my Zentradi bodyguard probably won't be able to fit into your corridors because of her proportions," – In a flat lector-like tone, Hyun-Ae explained the obvious reason why Azler could not escort her deep inside the ship.

"Oh…" – It was the only word that escaped Dusanyu's mouth who blinked several times to believe into what he saw. He came to conclusion that farfetched theory that Zentradi could be somehow related to Abh was not realistic. On the other hand the prince understood why Lt. Commander Orbos was so overbearing. If everybody could be crushed literally with a wave of your hand your attitude could be quite nasty toward really small in comparison people.

"Azler, you may close your cockpit," – Faintly smiling in satisfaction, the young girl ordered the Zentradi to return to her duties – "I leave you her. Everything would be translated to you through our intercom systems. And, I want to remind you… Since your pointy eared clan of battle maniacs got me into troubles numerous times – do not act without thinking first."

Dusanyu heard the part about "pointy eared clan" and frowned, which was not noticed by his guest who was continued to lecture her subordinate about some trivial things. He glanced at Cipair, who looked very smug after hearing the same thing, and noted to himself to speak with his chief-of-staff later, after negotiations.

"Yes, Ma'am. Azler to station here and wait for orders or specific event to act according to plan," – Azler saluted to Hyun-Ae and closed the cockpit of her Queadluun-Rhea, which soon afterwards walked toward VF-01 EX-N and to astonishment of all, except the black haired girl, removed a gun from underbelly of the variable fighter, which was an actual upscaled riffle. Saluting one more time, the humanoid stood on guard nearby the spacecraft with a gun in hands.

"Good, should we proceed to the audience room now?" – Hyun-Ae turned toward the prince and asked in diplomatic tone.

"Yes, of course. Princess Yi, this way…" – As an Imperial Admiral, Dusanyu was quite fast to return to his senses despite witnessing something completely bizarre seconds ago. With a grace, he moved to the side and nodded toward the exit from the hangar.

Nodding in return, the "princess" walked toward the welcoming delegation. When she reached the position of the prince, he started walking evenly with her, which made the girl smile. It seemed that these Abh were not as awful as United Mankind propaganda was coloring them. At least they considered the New United Nations as equal in negotiations, which was a good thing.

Cipair Kenesh followed slightly behind with a concerned glint in her eyes. After observing movements of the protective suit on their visitor she could understand that it was not a simple space suite. It clearly looked and felt like some kind military armor designed for boarding operations. Even though the crew had personal weapons, they were at best laser pistols that were not efficient in serious firefight.

The last ones to quietly leave the hangar were officers, one blue haired girl with pointy ears and other a brown haired lander, who looked back at the massive humanoid space craft and left shaking his head.

"That was a shocking revelation, Lafiel…" – Jinto said to his partner after the gates behind him closed. He had felt incredibly stupid in his ceremonial attire when the director of the 497th Research Fleet came out in that obscure suit. He thought that everybody felt the same way as he too.

"Nothing special," – It was clear that Lafiel was in a bad mood but the young man could not understand the reason behind this mood swing. However, after several steps, the girl turned to Jinto and said – "It was good that we were behind all. I thought I would die from embarrassment when I noticed how your eyes were glued to that giantess chest… Please, do not do something like this in front of everybody…"

"Eh?" – Confused, Jinto watched Lafiel fasten her steps to follow the processions and moment later moved his legs while trying to explain himself – "Lafiel, you clearly saw the wrong thing!"

* * *

The audience room had been silent for several minutes after everybody settled down in their respective seats around the table. Both sides were waiting for other to start a negotiation process but nobody talked.

Hyun-Ae silently sighed and lightly tapped the table surface to calm her down, which left some dents on it because of involuntary level of strength that was processed by her EX-suit. It startled her and all others present in the room, including that beautiful pair of admiral and vice-admiral that were sitting opposite of her.

"Sorry, but it was not done with ill intent," – The girl sheepishly smile and leaned slightly forward while putting her hands on each other on the table. She looked to the other side of the table and continued – "So, we probably should start discussion about our relations in the near future."

"Yes, Princess Yi. I think it was rude for me to treat you with silence. It is just… The Empire had never met another civilization that had the same sentiments towards stars like ours and we kind of don't know how to deal with you," – Regaining some of his composure, Dusanyu slowly and politely, unlike negotiations with Landers, answered Hyan-Ae, who nodded in return, showing her understanding. The prince diplomatically smiled and continued – "I managed to get a response about possibilities during our negotiations from the capital. The Empress wants us to cooperate and avoid any hostilities as possible. That is why we will look the other way regarding your mining operations in the Aptic system. Well, considering that all we are interested here is the Sord and Aptic IV with its hydrogen and water…"

"We are grateful for your pardon for this case. It would be really troublesome to start the war over some debris in space that was not used by the system government," – Hyun-Ae accepted the goodwill with a smile – "However, it seems that the Empire has something to propose to us, am I right? Imperial Admiral Abriel?"

"Yes, You Highness. The Empress and Imperial council want your nation, or likely an alliance of nations based on your name, the New United Nations, to join the Empire," – Even though Cipair understood that it was quite a dream but if the other side would agree, it would be beneficial for the Empire in the long run.

"And… What the general conditions for joining?" – It was so straightforward. Hyun-Ae looked at the beautiful woman beside the beautiful prince in front of her and sighed once again. She felt herself to be so ugly in comparison, even though people told her that she was quite pretty…

"There are only two general rules that as principle forced over new parts of the Empire. First, the possession of inter-stellar flight capable starships, including both faster-than-light and standard propulsion is forbidden. However, in some cases it is possible for inter-planetary standard propulsion ships to be allowed. Either way any weapon system on these ships are not accepted," – It was a standard speech Dusanyu usually said to the conquered systems, still at this moment he did so without the usual arrogance since the other nation was not made of Landers, they were basically the same kins of star like Abh.

"And the second one?" – It was obvious for Abh that the first rule had left a bad aftertaste in their guest, who frowned but asked to continue.

"Second, a recruitment office for the imperial star forces should be established…" – Dusanyu stopped when he saw that the princess wanted to say something – "Yes, Princess Yi…"

"Do you really think that we will accept something like this. My nation thinks that planets are nice to have, especially living on them could be quite comfortable. However, we think that ability to travel among the stars is failsafe method to uphold our race and traditions…" – Hyun-Ae loudly sighed in the end, without ending her sentence. The girl looked around and found that the present people were staring at her with shock in their eyes – "In other words, inter-stellar space travel is our most cherished tradition and preservation mechanism. We could not cede it…"

"The Empire understands this and agrees to compromise with your nation," – There possible solutions were sent as well during preparation stage before this negotiation even started. The Empress did not want the New United Nations to freely wander the space and make contact with the United Mankind. At the same time she and Imperial council theorized that forceful approach, like it was usual with Landers would put them into hot spot, especially if all the information that the New United Nations bragged about was true…

"Oh, than I listening…"

The prince approvingly nodded and with a slight movement of his hand asked his chief-of-staff to continue – "The Empress will give you, Your Higness, the title of Grand Duchess and several populated systems of your choice which we would develop or conquer from the United Mankind. Additionally, especially for your nation… Your fief would be allowed to have inter-system spaceships of your own design. In return the Empire would ask for you to avoid any contact with any other nations… Without Empire consent."

Hyun-Ae raised her hand to pause Admiral Kenesh. This proposal was good on surface. Without any real support from their home worlds and military, all they had on their hands are several hundreds of vessels from Zentradi Strike Squadron, around one hundred ships from her own Research Fleet and slightly more from the military escort that was stranded somewhere with broken down fold drives. Still, if she would accept it right now, it would basically means that the United Mankind and its allies would become their enemies.

"I understand that it is just a generalization instead of an actual proposal…" – It was obvious for the girl that her peers had no true right to sign such a treaty and only probed waters. While something like this could not hurt her or her fellow comrades it was literally a waste of time.

"You don't like this proposal? Or you think that your people would be offended if your title would be lessen to Grand Duchess?" – Cipair carefully questioned the girl's response. She could understand some pride of commoners toward their benevolent rulers, especially for somebody who led their nations for dozens of generations. The Empire predicted as much as well – "In this case, we could give your fief status of autonomous principality. You will hold your Princess title while in terms of Imperial bureaucracy it would be a territory of Grand Duchess."

"Hm…" – It seemed that these people misunderstood her response. Hyun-Ae clenched her teeth and forcefully smiled. While maintaining an even tone, she tried to summarize everything she heard so far – "So, the Empire agrees for us to join with major exception in your rules – the ownership of interstellar capable spacecraft… Additionally we will gain several star systems to reign over and develop. And as long as we do not interfere with policy of the Empire and do not have relations with other nations you would leave us alone…"

"Not really alone… We would like to trade with you… We are quite interested in some of your technologies…" – Admiral Kenesh responded almost immediately. All these exceptions and blatant sugarcoating were just to establish trading that would favor the Empire and give it an edge over the Alliance.

"Technologies you say…" – By reflex, Hyun-Ae put her chin between two fingers and looked at the woman. So it was their weapon and defensive technologies they really wanted. Of course the Empire was currently at war with enemy that was strategically evenly matched. These beautiful star elves wanted to get upper hand in any future battles…

Dusanyu and Cipair, as well as others, stiffened when they saw a serious expression on the princess' face. Maybe their phrasing was wrong?

"It is possible but considering the difference in our technological base I doubt that we could sell you even blueprints. You won't be able to utilize them because of incompatibilities of our equipment," – This made Abh slightly discouraged but the next words made everything more clear. The New United Nations did not want to open their secrets directly – "I suggest upgrading your existing equipment with our technologies. It would increase the performance and would not require for you to rebuild your ships from scratch… How do you look about this?"

This princess lived for thousands of years not for nothing. Dusanyu had a clear view behind this counter-proposal. The Humankind Empire of Abh would get no information about the New United Nations technologies while otherwise was not true. After all, to upgrade their equipment they would have to give an entire piece of said equipment, probably an entire ship so everything was upgraded without creating problems in other systems.

"I think we would not able to decide anything right now," – Hyan-Ae smiled and briefly looked at counter in the right corner of her helmet that was showing the remaining power in the suit – "Let's send each other the drafts of proposals and discuss it with our advisers. We should not make unreasonable decisions…"

"Of course, Princess Yi… I think it is a reasonable conclusion for the first round of our negotiations…" – The intentions of other nations was hard to read but they were not hostile, maybe wary. Dusanyu agreed to cease the negotiation process for a while to discuss the results with Lakfakalle …


	7. Chapter 06

**AN:** My vacation had ended... Well, it just means that I would update less frequantly because of my job and less inspiration from novels and games.

 **Chapter 06**

"So, your decision is to continue this play?" – Hyun-Ae looked at the old man on her screen, who just smirked in return. Rear Admiral Pavlov was an old veteran, who had fought in many minor conflicts. His understanding of politics was lacking but out of the entire personnel he was probably the only one with the first contact experience.

"Yes…" – With a sigh, the veteran glances to the side – "Like you theorized, we differently not in our timeline. We even got a proof this…"

"Let me guess… Since you were jumping toward the Solar system…" – The Empire shared some of its historical files with the 497th Research Fleet and there was information about the home world of humanity demise. Alien Space Ship One had never crushed onto the Earth surface and the globalization took its sweet time forcing exodus of some radical elements into space. Later, a global war had started on Earth…

"It is like you think, the Earth is destroyed. Its ecosystem is almost non-existent and the population is quite scarce," – There was some sadness in old man's words, however he didn't show his emotions on his face – "With this, we are all alone in the depth of the space…"

"Our fleet is not large enough to terraform any planet, even though we have technology…" – Each sizable fleet had everything needed to rebuild the human civilization from the scratch, the century old paradigm to avoid extinction event. However, the 497th Research Fleet had no City-cluster or Terraforming-cluster. It put them in pretty vulnerable position since finding a suitable planet in this star ocean was not an easy task.

"We do not need to terraform anything," – Pavlov smiled and cared beard with his right hand. He pushed several buttons and additional table appeared in front of Hyna-Ae – "These are all planets that can be adapted to our needs without terraforming process. After all, it seems that this timeline is just a different timeline and not completely different universe."

"Commander, do you suggest to colonize one of the previously colonized worlds and project our influence from there?" – It was a very decent plan. They lack manpower but they had knowledge and technology to do so.

The girl scrolled the table and briefly looked over the names of systems and planets. Some of these worlds were quite famous, especially Windameria with her fanatical citizens…

"I suppose that Eden is not an option for colonization since it one of the closest planet systems with almost Earth-like living conditions?" – It was the most populated world in their own timeline but it was probably the same in this one, or maybe not since there was no anomaly that allowed interstellar space travel in acceptable time frame. Still, it was not wise to settle on the world so close to the Earth.

There were many other options as well, some even close to her current position, which could give them an edge in any possible conflict with the Empire or the United Mankind. She was not a part of military and was not a politician, she was a simple researcher. However, she understood that the better you hide your trump cards the more efficient they would be in the future when you would be forced to use them.

"Rear Admiral, how many people do you have in your fleet?" – Hyun-Ae asked while she continued to look through planets that were suitable for colonization.

The old man made an effort to remember the approximate number of men and women under his command and unsurely answered – "I have around one hundred and fifty thousand personnel… But why do you ask?"

"I think we should colonize planet Gizel I in the Gizel system. It is only fifty five parsecs from the Aptic system, where I am currently stationed. The planet, Gizel I, has a very mild climate and could be used as agricultural paradise. With our genetic engineering and advancement in medicine we could somehow deal with majority of genetic diseases," – Yutu drew some graphs that were transmitted to NUNS "Manticore" as well. They all showed population growth, natural, via cloning chambers and combined. Additionally, there was a graph of possible agriculture expansion on the planet.

"Do you want to say that we should hide and prepare for the worst?" – Such proposal made the veteran perplexed, even though he understood that it was probably the best kind of solution. In the next ten or twenty years, with careful administration, they would be able to have a population of several dozens of millions.

"Yes, I don't know any other solution to our current predicament," – Well, there was other solution. It was to join of existed superpowers in this timeline. As far as she was informed they were the Humankind Empire of Abh, the United Mankind, the Federation of Hania, the People's Sovereign Union of Planets and the Republic of Greater Alkont. It just didn't sit well in Hyun-Ae to surrender their sovereignty to nations with different point of view than their own. Never mind, that all of them were not aware of the greater dangers that still lingered in space.

"Still, how do you want to deal with these Abh?" – Pavlov looked concerned. After all he had read all reports, both from Yi and Orbos, and did not like the situation in hand.

"I don't know… But I think we could get something out of them. Specifically, something that we could produce but it would be better to procure without expanding our limited manufacturing resources," – Medicine, food and raw material could be produced in required quantity… The problem was that it would eat up some of their own production time, which of course could be used for something else – "I suggest trading with the Humankind Empire of Abh. I think they are interested in our weapon technology…"

"I disapprove lending our weapons to any nation that currently at war, especially if it is a global war like you described," – It was like giving grenade to a monkey – you would never know when it would be thrown to you.

"No, I have no intention to give them any of OT weapons. Still, I think it will be plausible to upgrade their existent weapons with our advanced knowledge and manufacturing processes," – Hyun-Ae agreed that it would be unwise to give Abh their own weapons. She had read a lot about Windamerian crisis and thought it would be very stupid to repeat something like this with a thousand systems wide stellar empire.

"I discontent about the game that Orbos started and these guys accepted, you know…" – Sighing, Rear Admiral Pavlov disapprovingly shook his head.

"Well, I can't say it is a nice feeling to be in front of possible danger… However, I think we should take this bet and look to its end in order to survive. Many people died for me to live… Many people died while I am alive… The best I can do is to ensure that they won't be disappointed in me," – She survived by chance two times while others whom she knew perished without any trace. It would be disgrace to run away and do nothing, at least it was what Hyun-Ae thought.

"Girl…" – Feeling depression in the last words, Pavlov could only ball his hand into fist and reassuringly smile to Hyun-Ae. He had read her profile and knew about her past…

"Additionally, when I was little… I always dreamt about being a princess…" – Those dreams had just never included a large interstellar spacecraft… Hyun-Ae smiled at the veteran commander and added in more business like tone – "I will continue negotiation with these people and try to establish some trade with them. What we currently need the most are food and textile material in large quantities. As for space facilities…"

"Do you intend to send majority of your fleet to us?"

"Yes, I will send all my military and civilian craft, including space factories. This way you will be able to build up fast and without much worry," – There was no need of these facilities to her, right here, right now. Her own battleship "Chang'E" was able to produce military and civilian equipment in minimal quantities, enough to support remaining ships she wanted to hold in possession – "However, two New Battle Class and Seven Quarter Class vessels that were stationed for repair in "Guanghan" shipyard… And shipyard itself… I would like to have them in case of emergency… Some of Zentradi ships would be nice as well…"

"I want to tell… That you should leave everything to me… But… If it is your decision…" – Slightly shaking his head, the old man agreed to this bizarre proposal but added – "I will leave peaceful diplomacy to you… Still, if need arises… Lt. Commander Orbos will demonstrate our stick part of diplomatic approach and you, Lieutenant Yi, should follow her orders…"

"Yes, Sir…"

* * *

The massive structure of "Guanghan" shipyard slowly moved through normal space, escorted by Macross Class ships: two Battle Classes and seven Quarter Classes – the main battle force of the 497th Research Fleet. The destination of this small fleet was Aptic III, geostationary orbit near the Abh space control station. The rest of ships went to Aptic VII, the Saturn-like gas giant at the edge of the system. Its shadow would be a perfect cover for long distance fold to the Gizel star system. Such tactics would allow to hide even the principle behind New United Nations faster than light technology.

"Everything goes according to plan," – The chosen courses were optimal for both fleets and would allow preserving as much propellant as possible in case of sudden attacks. Hyun-Ae was looking at the hologram that represented the Aptic system, out of scale, and confirmed the position of the Zentradi Strike Squadron. She requested Mira to move her ships to Aptic V and station there, to avoid a situation when one well-planned attack could decapitate their force by surprise. It did not sit well with the proud Zentradi commander who thought that it was reckless for civilian to stick so close to potential enemies but, in the end, she accepted her role.

The main problem, in case of direct confrontation, would be lack of fighter wings. All nine vessels had around one thousand new Q-11 "Specter Ghost" and five thousand outdated VFs with several hundred experimental, long distance space fighters specialized in extremely fast and hard first strike routine. Aside Q-11, all of these fighters were manual controlled ones, which significantly reduced the fleet's high precision firepower. Without any fighter screen, her vessels could only rely on CIWS for close engagements, which would suboptimal in majority of standard scenarios.

Out of all variable fighters, only VF-171EX could be reliably upgraded with the same advanced A.I. system that was used on Q-11 "Specter Ghost". The older models could not completely benefit from such upgrades because of limitation in A.I. routines. However, fuselages of VF-11 and VF-17 models still could be used "as is", like improvised space fighters with larger capacity since their transformation ability would be impossible to fully utilize by A.I. The oldest ones, like VF-01 and VF-04, should go the same adaptation and upgrades.

"What kind of blueprints do we have in our database for variable fighters?" – Answering the question, Yutu showed several variants, all of them were outdated designs, which were not on par with the modern military models. The most "new" one was VF-27, which would require quite a lot of effort to build and adapt to be run by A.I.

Both the Humankind Empire of Abh and the Alliance lacked small combatable craft, however they had numerous high-speed and high-maneuverable frigates, which could require some high maneuverable vessels on her part as well. With a sigh, Hyun-Ae ordered Yutu to show her specifications for Q-11 "Specter Ghost" and SF-7N "Lancer A".

"Begin production of SF-7N in "Chang'E" internal factories," – While Q-11 was much better choice in case of meeting numerous enemies with high maneuverability because of its mobility, utility and firepower, the other choice, SF-7N, was a perfect example of expandable space fighter that had overwhelming firepower and straight line speed. A production of "Specter Ghost" could wait for later, when there would be more clear understanding behind the motivation of the Abh Empire.

The girl was not a really good long-term strategist but under current circumstances she preferred to have more simple and reliable firepower instead of sophisticated craft that would only shine against similar types of opponents.

"Blueprints from Star Force of the Humankind Empire of Abh were processed into format that could be interpreted by our holographic projector," – The A.I. informed Hyun-Ae about completion of the task that was delegated to it several hours before this brainstorming session on the bridge. By her lonesome.

She looked through different types of subsystems, which belonged to "Roil-class" Assault Ship, the same design, as was "Guest One". However, all these blueprints had something common between them – without any of these subsystems a space vessel could still travel safely and won't really suffer. In other words, she got blueprints of various secondary systems, weapons and other unimportant things like this. No schematics of engines, sensors, reactor, shields and, of course, not even any hint about that unknown devices that could allow faster than light space travel.

"They are quite smart," – A small smirk appeared on the girl's face. Hyun-Ae did not hold any hopes that she would get any information about faster than light engines but she was surprised that even essentials like life-support system and reactor were not revealed.

"How long it would take for "Guanghan" to arrive at our current location?" – It would be impossible to start production without proper industrial facility, at least it would be unwise to show that "Chang'E" could produce sophisticated equipment.

"At current fuel consumption setting, the shipyard will arrive in 131 standard hours. Should I order it to accelerate?" – The A.I. answered in a flat emotionless voice and after several seconds projected information on holographic screen in front of the girl. Of course, the current acceleration rate was optimal in terms of fuel consumption and travel time.

"There is no need for us to do this," – Hyun-Ae put her hand on the wall and opened armored shutters on the bridge. She always wondered why all Macross Class ships, including this monstrosity had transparent observation windows on the bridge made of reinforced glass. It made no sense in terms of combat efficiency and was an obvious weakness in general. She even requested armored shutters to be installed on the bridge, which had been always kept shut after initial installation during maneuvers. "What a nice view…" – The Earth-like planet, Aptic III, covered almost entire space behind the window, while numerous bright points were moving across the blackness of space here and there, construction vessels and military craft of the Abh Empire. It was nice to see something like this from time to time but she still thought that observation windows were a moronic idea in the first place. With current technology, the holographic projection could easily perform the same thing without creating weak points in the ship hull.

The surface of the planet looked a little dirty, despite being covered by oceans and seas like the home world of the humanity. It was clear that Aptic III was an industrial planet that cared less about environment and agriculture while putting all its effort into production capabilities. Something like this could exist only in a vast and politically united nation, where some planets specialized in limited number of goods. It was a sign of peaceful time, without any fear of total annihilation. Somewhere there, in the darkness of space, thousand Grand Fleets and numerous smaller ones of Zentradi continued to fulfill their mission to battle the Supervision Army without a visible end. Sooner or later, they would emerge and lay waste to the habitable world of humankind, be it the ones controlled by the Empire or the Alliance.

She dreamt about sci-fi empires and friendly aliens when she was a child. However, when she woke up from her cryo stasis, she found out that her planet was destroyed by "mistake"… And former enemies became her surrogate family in this new chaotic and unknown world. It was a simple irony…

"Yutu, what is a status of the Vajra Battleship?" – It was another alien life form that could become a massive headache later as well.

"Vajra Battleship had left the system 7 standard hours ago. However, according to our scanner, at least 11 Vajra Heavy Soldiers stationed in the system with appropriate number of Mobile Soldiers. An intention behind this action is unknown," – Why would Vajra be curious about this system. While they were not isolationist race – they were not extremely curious as well. Vajra usually left other sentient races to their own devices as long as they were not provoked, or falsely provoked like it happened during Anti-Vajra War in 2059.

"Any other important information that needs my attention?" – It was impossible to micromanage everything right now. Even main and secondary A.I.s of her own ship were still limited in their functionality due to their programming restriction. This was a heavy burden for the young girl.

Instead of audio response, the large local star cluster map appeared behind her. Then several spheres appeared over nearby, to the Aptic system, stars. Hyun-Ae turned around and pointed at one of the spheres, the closest to them – at 17 light years away.

The various data had appeared in front of the girl but the most critical information that got her attention was one – it seemed that that location was an ancient battlefield, between Zentradi forces and the Supervision Army. The other spheres likely represented the same thing as well.

With a wave of the girl hand, A.I. zoomed out and automatically zoomed in to another location – this time the distance was 73 light years. The name that appeared nearby and the projected silhouettes were something that she had read only in historical files and watched in overdramatized movies... And it was the only fleet of Zentradi that the New United Nation Government had all important ship signatures decrypted, including the vessels that were destroyed.

"The 118th Bodol Zer Main Fleet?" – How can it still exist? Hyun-Ae slowly whispered the displayed name. Of course, if there was no Space War I, then Bodol Zer Main Fleet could have survived until the current date but… Why was it here? Its location should be far away since Zentradi Main Fleets rarely relocated…


	8. Chapter 07

**AN:** Meanwhile, the trouble slowly crawl to our heroes...

 **Chapter 07**

"What a handsome guide," – With a gentle smile on her, Hyun-Ae greeted Jinto, who instantly got embarrassed and turned away to avoid eye contact. It was so funny to see the boy and his superior officer, the blue-haired Deca-Commander, whose face did not look particularly nice. The girl tried to hide her emotions but it was still obvious for the fake princess.

Hyun-Ae herself did not think that she was extremely charming enough to woe this pretty boy in front of her. For her, it was likely a simple curiosity toward her slightly modified traditional Korean dress, hanbok. She decided to use it since it looked sufficiently exotic. Naturally, it was not a real silk hanbok with white shirt and blue skirt. Everything, from entire dress and traditional accessories were created with holographic projection and partial application of the full barrier system of her EX-suit core part. The only thing that she had to make was her hairstyle with false golden phoenix hair accessory and some thin semi-transparent ribbons to keep her waist long hair straight. This system was developed for idols in case they would be forced to perform on the frontlines but she modified it a little to suit her taste.

"Your Highness, I am Viscountess Abriel Paryunu and this "handsome guide" is Count Hyde. We are Territorial Ambassador and Deputy Territorial Ambassador of the Humankind Empire of Abh in Aptic System. It would be our duty to escort you during your visit in the Aptic System," – Lafiel lightly elbowed Jinto, who straightened up and officially introduced them to the black haired girl in an unknown and likely very formal dress. The two women behind the New United Nations princess were wearing classic long-skirted black-colored maid dresses. They were both armed with bulky and heavy looking rifles, something that usually was not allowed on Abh controlled territories for foreign citizens. It was a preferential treatment without any questions.

"It is nice to meet you again, Deca-Commander Abriel and…" – Smiling, Hyun-Ae looked at Jinto who remained silent because of intense aura that was emitted by the Abh girl beside him. The "princess" knowingly nodded toward the poor guy and looked back at the Abriel viscountess – "I will trouble both of you today to escort me on the planet surface since our citizens want to look how do you treat conquered planets…" – After a small pause she added – "Of course, I want relax a little as well. It was a long time ago, when I was able to step under a normal, natural gravity."

Jinto sheepishly smiled and glanced at Lafiel, trying to judge what the stoic princess of Abriel family thought about such trivial "Lander" sentiment from Her Highness, Princess Hyun-Ae. To his surprise, she just nodded in acceptance – "Of course, the Humankind Empire of Abh understand your concerns and we will provide enough evidence that we maybe not an altruistic nation but we are not unreasonable tyrants as well."

"It is not that we do not trust your words. It is just a standard precaution…" – The girl in question shrugged her shoulders and reassuringly smiled. It took her some time to persuade Mira to let her visit the planet surface. The usually carefree Zentradi commander was quite persistent this time about security measures and possible mishaps on the planet. Only after she introduced Artificial Maid androids, which used cybernetic technology developed by General Galaxy, and was infamous because of Macross Galaxy Colonization Fleet, with addition of an advanced A.I. system from the 497th Research Fleet. These two androids behind her had enough intelligence to perform basic actions and they can use lethal force under certain conditions as well.

"You seems very fond of planet surface, You Highness," – Since the atmosphere became kind of awkward Jinto decided to ask a very simple question that interested him.

Lafiel, who was frowning because of possible trust problem between the Empire and the New United Nations, perked up and looked at the foreign princess with curiosity. After all, unlike Jinto, who was born and grew up mostly on the planet surface, and was a lander, this young woman in front of her had traveled in space for millenniums, while her nation did not hold planets as the only source of existence and have large part of population continuously living in space. Why Royalty of such nation would eager to land on the planet surface?

"Well, it is simple matter," – Hyun-Ae paused. She carelessly waved her hand and continued – "I am the last survivor of "zero" generation… Unlike later generations I still long for planets because it never came to my mind that humans would be able to freely travel in space."

"Hm… "Zero" generation?" – It reminded Jinto about the first generation of the Abh nobility like ex-baron Febdash. He remembered that Hecto-Commander Atosuruyua mentioned that he brother and herself were the first generation of Abh nobility. Was it the same principle behind it?

"Yeah… It is how others call me because I was born in 1991 A.D. on the Earth," – Nonchalantly, as a simple piece of trivia, Hyun-Ae answered the question without any thought. Jinto, despite being educated, could not understand an implication behind that date. However, Lafiel barely suppressed her surprise. She was never interested in digging through all those historical files that was sent by the New United Nations but she could now understand such preferential treatment from the fleet command – "You could say, I am the "princess" only because of my date of birth… At least for Zentradi."

People, both genuine Landers and Abh, looked at the talking trio with curiosity, slowing down and creating a small traffic jam in this particular part of the space station. Because of this, a delegate from Aptic III managed to find them quite fast, despite unfamiliar layout of the space platform, which later should become a full star port in the system.

The old bald man walked close to the group and out of habit saluted the youngsters who greeted him in return. He recognized the young human and the Abh girl since the official surrender of Aptic III was covered by the planet mass media thoroughly, with good high-resolution video and picture. Additionally, both of them were wearing official Abh cloths, almost identical to the previous ones.

However, the other girl was different. She was clearly a "Lander" in terms of Abhs but the air surrounding her was clearly much more independent in comparison to others. No need to tell, that both the Territorial Ambassador and Deputy Ambassador looked like they were escorting the young woman in very elaborate and baggy clothes with many golden accessories.

"Are you Mr. Gordwood?" – Carefully choosing his tone, Jinto asked the bald man to confirm his identity. The planetary government, after some negotiations, decided to provide minimal escort to avoid unnecessary incidents on the surface. By their estimation, if something would happen to the Abh representatives on the planet it could lead to full blockade, which would lead to starvation on Aptic III, the industrial center among nearby systems.

"Yes, You Excellency, I am Gordwood Ernst. I am a minister of tourism in the current government on Aptic III," – The man was talking politely without any trace of hostility. He turned toward Hyun-Ae, silently asking Abh representatives to introduce her to him.

"This is Her Highness, the princess of the New United Nations, Yi Hyun-Ae. She wants to see how we, the Humankind Empire of Abh, are treating the conquered worlds. Of course, we accepted it since we do not demand unreasonable things from planetary governments," – It was Lafiel, who politely introduced the "princess" and explained the reason behind "inspection". This was said with implication that the other party should not to inquire for details.

"And these two women behind?" – Wearing simple maid-like uniforms without unnecessary fetish accessories, Ernst could easily deduce who they were, but still asked out of politeness and formality.

"My maids and bodyguards," – The black haired girl answered with a smile, while slightly nodding toward women. Then she turned back to Gordwood and asked – "Should we proceed to the docks?"

"Of course, Your Highness, Your Excellences. The transport is waiting for us in section 21-B. Please, follow this old man," – While Ernst had conflicting feelings about the Abh girl and a young man, the Deputy Ambassador, he had a good impression about this foreign human princess that traveled with them. The United Mankind propaganda told them that the Humankind Empire of Abh was ruthless, treating the planetary population as slaves. Their arrogance left them without allies but by the looks of what he saw, one just need to have some degree of skill to negotiate on equal terms with them.

After all, the Abh girl was a member of the Abriels, the ruling clan of the Empire. To escort some foreigner to the surface the Abh despised, there was no need to send the Territorial Ambassador and a member of the Abh Royalty. The Deputy Ambassador would be enough. These actions showed that the Empire wanted to please the New United Nations and put a lot of importance into negotiations with them…

* * *

"You seem unwell, young man," – It was obvious that Jinto did not feel really well after rough landing, the Aptic III transport was quite outdated and its gravity control system required some adjustment. The poor youngster did not expected such wild riding and felt nauseated after leaving the space ship, barely holding himself by sheer willpower from vomiting on the concrete of the space port.

Hyun-Ae felt a little better because of an intense training during her teenage past with Zentradi she could adapt faster. Her sense of balance returned almost immediately when they landed and, after some mental concentration with minor assistance from her EX-suit, she was able to suppress motion sickness symptoms. Of course, androids was not bothered by it at all.

On the other hand, Lafiel was completely unaffected by rough travel and landing. She, however, felt quite embarrassed by Jinto's weakness. In her mind, there was already training routine to avoid possible future accidents like this one. Despite seemingly normal behavior, the Abh easily saw through tough front that the foreign princess made. Of course, it did not tell much about how good Zentradi or New United Nations pilots were since it was quite simple to understand that the princess was just a political figure without much military training.

The Aptic minister of foreign affairs looked at his guests and did not show any emotions on his face. He was accustomed to the transport they took and was not affected by its sub-optimal performance. It was somewhat strange that the Deputy Ambassador had a motion sickness but he did not asked any questions. The interesting part was that the princess of the New United Nations faired quite well, almost as well as the Territorial Ambassador herself.

"The air is not polluted as I would expect from the industrial planet," – While patting green-faced Jinto on the shoulder, Hyun-Ae turned her head toward Ernst. Unlike their own industrial facilities and presumably Imperial ones, the Aptic III industry was completely surface-based. The skies were blue and you could breathe without smelling any foul gases in air.

Of course, it was just a lip service since Yutu managed to send drones into Aptic III atmosphere and get some samples of its composition and biological contamination. If those parameters was outside safe ranges she would never asked about visiting the planet surface.

"Well, we are living here, after all. That is why all companies had to install pollution recycling systems into their production lines to avoid a situation, where our citizens would not be able to breath fresh air or drink clean water," – With a hint of pride, Gordwood explained the situation on Aptic III. He heard about some industrial center planets with abysmal atmosphere and polluted water but here, they used civilized methods in their industrial raise right from the beginning.

They walked during this small talk and felt the same curious glances mixed with hostile ones. While Hyun-Ae did not felt any hostility toward her, she detected scorn in eyes of people that looked at her companions from the Empire. The local law enforcement officers made a way for them by explaining situation to bystanders and dealing with the most aggressive ones with force, pushing them to sidelines.

Her overall impression about the citizens of Aptic III was simple: they seemed mostly uninterested in large struggle among star faring nations. For the common people the situation on their planet was more important, they did not have a sense of comradery and national pride aside the one of their own home world.

When they exited the star port building, there was a human wall made of onlookers and mass media. Ernst frowned at this sight. Considering the number of people that gathered here, he could tell that somebody sold info to the side. It was impossible to gather all those media giants here because of random sightings inside the building, since it took only around ten minutes to complete all procedures. He even ordered not to vacate the premises from citizens to avoid alerting anybody.

"Seems we need to answer several questions to appease masses, doesn't it?" – Sighing, Hyun-Ae looked at the crowd and estimated how much time it would take to get to the car parked only dozen meters away from the exit. Despite all efforts of police officers, they was not able to push people apart to make a way – "Or we could use force to disperse this crowd…"

The last sentence startled Gordwood. He glanced at the princess of the New United Nations, who kept herself composed despite suggesting manslaughter like it was an obvious choice. Two maids behind this young and cold woman slightly raised their rifles, forcing the crowd in front of their small group to move back several steps.

"It was a joke," – With the same emotionless face, Hyun-Ae declared in a flat tone. The crowd however continued to keep distance from her.

"Your Highness, your jokes are too much…" – It made the minister to understand a little the way of thinking of this calm and cold lady that was accompanied by the Abh nobility. The way she dealt with crowd tell him about her ruthlessness and direct approach to problems. Little he knew that it was literally a bad joke told at the wrong time…

"That is disturbing comment from Your Highness," – Jinto tried to salvage the situation but his oratory skills seemed need more practice as well. Lafiel wanted to smack both of these blockheads but she could not do this right away. She understood why Hyun-Ae had chosen those words to express her dissatisfaction; after all she looked like a caged princess and probably was really bad at speaking with masses because of constant vigilance from her state. Still, that idiot of from her crew could be more careful with his wording.

"Yeah, yeah… You sure could not take a joke and laugh it off," – Hyun-Ae lightly elbowed Jinto and whispered so only he and Lafiel, who were close to her could hear it. To the crowd and the stupefied minister she said – "Well, well… It seems my translation device got some problems… Since we have some time I could answer your questions… Later…"

It was dangerous to make a press conference right on the street. Even now, she was fed with information about sniper that hid himself on the nearby building roof. Unlike the other, her androids detected several of them; it was clear that police did not deploy that one. Despite official surrender, the animosity toward the Empire was high. It told a lot about efficiency of the United Mankind propaganda and relief efforts and complete failure of it from the Imperial Forces. With such disposition, their war could continue for a long time.

"What do you think about the Humankind Empire of Abh," – There would be always a brave person among the crowd, this time it was a middle aged man who raised his voice to ask a question that interested everyone. Because they had read and heard that the Empire had never make allies and kept other nations away.

"I think the Empire could become our trusted ally in our war against alien races," – This answer created furor among the present people, who started to whisper with each other about implications behind. Right at that moment, one of her android maids swiftly moved forward and caught something with its hand, seconds later a loud sound of a shot boomed through the square in front of the star port. According to the trajectory, the target was Lafiel, the only pureblooded Abh presented in their delegation.

"You security is quite lacking, minister," – Hyun-Ae coldly grabbed the shocked man, who was ready to run. The crowd around them lost all reasoning and started to scatter in panic. The police tried to calm down and direct people to avoid casualties. The state snipers immediately eliminated the offender and begun scanning the vicinity for other possible criminals.

From the outside point of view it looked like the princess was not even affected by assassination attempt but the girl herself was so afraid that she was paralyzed by fear. While she knew that her personal full barrier system gave her some degree of protection there was no accurate method to determine the firepower of local firearms. At least it was kinetic in nature and not DEW.

Lafiel, who almost lost her life, nervously glanced at the gloved hand of the maid that caught the bullet right in front of her face and gratefully nodded toward the older woman – "Thank you…"

"Not a problem," – The gentle but strangely distant voice replied to the absent-minded Abh. The android moved away from the girl and scanned the vicinity for possible dangers while feeding the visuals to Hyun-Ae. According to its program, the artificial maid turned to her "employer" and declared – "There is no threats. No damage sustained." – There was some damage in the hand servos but it was nothing serious.

Jinto rushed toward Lafiel and grabbed her by shoulders examining her for any injures. He sighed in relief when he found that the blue-haired girl had no wounds and started to express his gratitude toward Hyun-Ae…

"It was in the range of calculated possibilities…' – The aloof princess waved her hand to dismiss Jinto and slowly walked toward the prepared car. The security protocols on Aptic III was horrible. However, she could compromise with attitude of police officers who decided to help their fellow citizens instead of alien guests. Still, such behavior was unprofessional and could lead to many problems in the future.

She turned toward Lafiel and carefully said in a flat tone – "I suggest the Territorial Ambassador Abriel to return. It seems that local population hold a hostility towards you, which could lead to many unprovoked attacks. The Deputy Ambassador would be enough for me and I will not take offense because of your absence today."

"Yes, yes… Lafiel, you should listen to Her Highness… It is dangerous here for you…" – In his worry, Jinto forgot about formalities and started to blabber his concerns.

After several minutes of persuasion from Jinto, Lafiel agreed to leave the surface to avoid complications during their state guest visit. The bald ministers felt lucky that the other nation had such capable maids, otherwise Aptic III would likely face the wrath of the Empire considering the lineage of the Territorial Ambassador.

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" – The Grand Commander of the 118th Zentradi Main Fleet, Serdor Bodolzaa, turned his head to the fleet archivist. The news his subordinate brought to him was so shocking and unbelievable that he could not hold his own excitement. Hundreds of thousands cycles they fought for their creators, the mysterious Protoculture, claiming victories after victories in battles against the treacherous Supervision Army. Now, after numerous cycles without leading hand of their masters they managed to intercept a signal, which was recognized by archivists as one from the Protoculture.

The archivist lightly nodded and showed footage they got from one of nearby systems –– "The system AW-2001X7 was claimed by one of primitive races several hundred cycles ago. Because of this, according to our directives, after confirming that the enemy did not have influence on them, we avoided the system. Still, one of our recon drones was left behind to continue monitoring the primitive life advancement. However, we received and interesting footage from our recon drone which remained silent for dozens of cycles," – An image of strange ships, a mix between Zentradi designs and the Supervision Army ones appeared – "As you can see, Commander, the reason behind reactivation of the drone was this fleet that appeared in the system. The ship design clearly outside of our enemy standard routine," – A small video fragment replaced the image. This time a small ship destroyed a relatively large, to its own size, asteroid with one of its cannons – "The firepower of this ship is much superior to ours and the enemy ones…"

Serdor was silent for a while. This footage was intriguing but nothing pointed that these newcomers were their creators. Yes, they had almost the same technology. Still it was not enough to prove he and his fleet should assist them. On the other hand, it could be dangerous to leave this race alone and he should order to destroy them to avoid creating complications in the future. Zentradi could ignore those pesky primitive races that used those shiny anomalies in space to travel between stars but something like folding should not be allowed. It would give too much of strategic advantage to others.

"I knew that you would doubt it but… Here…" – The archivist pleasantly smiled and showed another image. This time it was the familiar Nupetiet-Verginitzs bis Class Fleet Command Ship with some additional features that was not presented on the command ships of the 118th Main Fleet – "It is clearly a Zentradi design command ship. However, many additions, improvements and specific details make it different from our own ships. We could not confirm the number of Zentradi ships but they are surely more numerous than our probable creators ships."

"Maybe they are traitors? The ones who were contaminated by the Supervision Army?" – Such amount of evidence would not persuade the Grand Commander. The 118th Main Fleet had survived many battles because of carefulness of its Grand Commanders. They even sometimes were forced to destroy part of their own fleet to avoid failure in their main mission.

"We managed to get into that fleet communication lines with the primitives that were station on the planet that further proved our suspicions," – With a simple gesture of his hand, the archivist replayed part of the transmissions they managed to intercept and decode.

There were two Meltrandi, if Serdor was judging right based on their appearance, who were talking about some unimportant things until the blue-haired one asked the question – "Who are Zentradi to you?" – The answer that followed was a little vague – "They are artificial soldiers who were created by our "ancestors" to fight in thier interplanetary war. As it is some of them are still loyal to us, others do not recognize us as "ancestors" and would likely wage wars against us."

"What did the black-haired Meltrandi mean?" – Serdor turned around and glared at the archivist. He was slightly enraged when the footage mentioned Zentradi betrayal. Zentradi had never betrayed their Masters.

"I think she meant the time when part of our race were contaminated, forming the Supervision Army, and turned against our creators. At least, this is how we, fleet archivists, interpreted those words," – The Grand Commander nodded in agreement. It was a definite possibility that after thousands cycles some information was lost.

"So, if we assume that that fleet is the last known survivors of Protoculture, what should we do?" – The obvious answer for Serdor was to join the small escort fleet of Zentradi in the system and ensure the safety of survivors. However, it could lead to misunderstanding and possible retaliation fire from their creators. After all, the war was still going on.

The archivist became silent. After so many cycles, their 118th Main Fleet absorbed five other main fleets' remnants and fought dozen of decisive battles in the current sector. They military might was impressive, bolstered to over 11 million capital ships and hundred manufacturing facilities that was relocated into the part of the Galaxy. For the last one hundred cycles, the fleet was idle, trying to reorganize itself for better efficiency. It gave too much time for bored archivists to research archives from the old times...

He understood that direct approach would likely be interpreted as a hostile action. They could not just appear in front of the small Protoculture fleet and try to communicate with them like with other Zentradi. However, there was another way to do this. Still aggressive from the outside point of view.

"Grand Commander, how about this approach?" – The model of AW-2001X7 system appeared on the screen. The position of the "Protoculture" fleet was near the third planet while the small Zentradi fleet was deployed on the orbit of the fifth planet. The second part of the "Protoculture" fleet had folded away somewhere, without proper equipment it was impossible to determine the destination. The archivist pointed out at the Zentradi fleet – "We could fold out nearby the fifth planet orbit, around five times distance of their main weapon effective range. This will give us time to establish communications and avoid unnecessary battle."

Serdor looked over the proposed plan and turned his head to the archivist – "Well, it seems plausible but why we can't do the same with the "Protoculture" ships?" – If they stay outside of the effective range, it would be possible directly establish contact with survivors of their creators.

"While we can assume that Zentradi ships has somewhat the same weapon system, plus long lost reaction weaponry… We could not tell the same about "Protoculture" ships," – It would be risky to appear somewhere close to those unknown ships and suffer heavy casualties because of misunderstanding. It would be much easier to start negotiations with other Zentradi.

"I accept your plan," – The Grand Commander walked toward the command post in the room and ordered through all channels of the fleet – "All ships, prepare to fold together with my flagship…"

"Are you sure about this?" – The Grand Commander of the 118th Zentradi Main Fleet, Serdor Bodolzaa, turned his head to the fleet archivist. The news his subordinate brought to him was so shocking and unbelievable that he could not hold his own excitement. Hundreds of thousands cycles they fought for their creators, the mysterious Protoculture, claiming victories after victories in battles against the treacherous Supervision Army. Now, after numerous cycles without leading hand of their masters they managed to intercept a signal, which was recognized by archivists as one from the Protoculture.

The archivist lightly nodded and showed footage they got from one of nearby systems –– "The system AW-2001X7 was claimed by one of primitive races several hundred cycles ago. Because of this, according to our directives, after confirming that the enemy did not have influence on them, we avoided the system. Still, one of our recon drones was left behind to continue monitoring the primitive life advancement. However, we received and interesting footage from our recon drone which remained silent for dozens of cycles," – An image of strange ships, a mix between Zentradi designs and the Supervision Army ones appeared – "As you can see, Commander, the reason behind reactivation of the drone was this fleet that appeared in the system. The ship design clearly outside of our enemy standard routine," – A small video fragment replaced the image. This time a small ship destroyed a relatively large, to its own size, asteroid with one of its cannons – "The firepower of this ship is much superior to ours and the enemy ones…"

Serdor was silent for a while. This footage was intriguing but nothing pointed that these newcomers were their creators. Yes, they had almost the same technology. Still it was not enough to prove he and his fleet should assist them. On the other hand, it could be dangerous to leave this race alone and he should order to destroy them to avoid creating complications in the future. Zentradi could ignore those pesky primitive races that used those shiny anomalies in space to travel between stars but something like folding should not be allowed. It would give too much of strategic advantage to others.

"I knew that you would doubt it but… Here…" – The archivist pleasantly smiled and showed another image. This time it was the familiar Nupetiet-Verginitzs bis Class Fleet Command Ship with some additional features that was not presented on the command ships of the 118th Main Fleet – "It is clearly a Zentradi design command ship. However, many additions, improvements and specific details make it different from our own ships. We could not confirm the number of Zentradi ships but they are surely more numerous than our probable creators ships."

"Maybe they are traitors? The ones who were contaminated by the Supervision Army?" – Such amount of evidence would not persuade the Grand Commander. The 118th Main Fleet had survived many battles because of carefulness of its Grand Commanders. They even sometimes were forced to destroy part of their own fleet to avoid failure in their main mission.

"We managed to get into that fleet communication lines with the primitives that were station on the planet that further proved our suspicions," – With a simple gesture of his hand, the archivist replayed part of the transmissions they managed to intercept and decode.

There were two Meltrandi, if Serdor was judging right based on their appearance, who were talking about some unimportant things until the blue-haired one asked the question – "Who are Zentradi to you?" – The answer that followed was a little vague – "They are artificial soldiers who were created by our "ancestors" to fight in thier interplanetary war. As it is some of them are still loyal to us, others do not recognize us as "ancestors" and would likely wage wars against us."

"What did the black-haired Meltrandi mean?" – Serdor turned around and glared at the archivist. He was slightly enraged when the footage mentioned Zentradi betrayal. Zentradi had never betrayed their Masters.

"I think she meant the time when part of our race were contaminated, forming the Supervision Army, and turned against our creators. At least, this is how we, fleet archivists, interpreted those words," – The Grand Commander nodded in agreement. It was a definite possibility that after thousands cycles some information was lost.

"So, if we assume that that fleet is the last known survivors of Protoculture, what should we do?" – The obvious answer for Serdor was to join the small escort fleet of Zentradi in the system and ensure the safety of survivors. However, it could lead to misunderstanding and possible retaliation fire from their creators. After all, the war was still going on.

The archivist became silent. After so many cycles, their 118th Main Fleet absorbed five other main fleets' remnants and fought dozen of decisive battles in the current sector. They military might was impressive, bolstered to over 11 million capital ships and hundred manufacturing facilities that was relocated into the part of the Galaxy. For the last one hundred cycles, the fleet was idle, trying to reorganize itself for better efficiency. It gave too much time for bored archivists to research archives from the old times...

He understood that direct approach would likely be interpreted as a hostile action. They could not just appear in front of the small Protoculture fleet and try to communicate with them like with other Zentradi. However, there was another way to do this. Still aggressive from the outside point of view.

"Grand Commander, how about this approach?" – The model of AW-2001X7 system appeared on the screen. The position of the "Protoculture" fleet was near the third planet while the small Zentradi fleet was deployed on the orbit of the fifth planet. The second part of the "Protoculture" fleet had folded away somewhere, without proper equipment it was impossible to determine the destination. The archivist pointed out at the Zentradi fleet – "We could fold out nearby the fifth planet orbit, around five times distance of their main weapon effective range. This will give us time to establish communications and avoid unnecessary battle."

Serdor looked over the proposed plan and turned his head to the archivist – "Well, it seems plausible but why we can't do the same with the "Protoculture" ships?" – If they stay outside of the effective range, it would be possible directly establish contact with survivors of their creators.

"While we can assume that Zentradi ships has somewhat the same weapon system, plus long lost reaction weaponry… We could not tell the same about "Protoculture" ships," – It would be risky to appear somewhere close to those unknown ships and suffer heavy casualties because of misunderstanding. It would be much easier to start negotiations with other Zentradi.

"I accept your plan," – The Grand Commander walked toward the command post in the room and ordered through all channels of the fleet – "All ships, prepare to fold together with my flagship…"

* * *

"That thing is…" – Mira was standing in the docking port of her flagship and examined the massive device her scouts managed to retrieve from the upper atmosphere of Aptic V. Of course, she easily recognized that thing – "An automated observation drone?"

It was standard, Zentradi issued, observation drone that was used to observe star systems that were "liberated" from the Supervision Army and did not hold any useful amount of resource to hold the position in them. It was not useful for active spying so Zentradi forces never used it during the Space War I.

"How did you manage to find this thing?" – With suppressed nervousness in her voice, Mira asked the commander of scouts.

The questioned Meltrandi pointed toward the general direction of the fifth planet, a gas giant comparable in size with Jupiter and answered – "We detected fold communication signal from the planet. Because of this, we went to investigate and found this drone in the upper atmosphere of the gas giant. It was in working condition but when we approached it, we got request for access code and after several minutes it self-destruct. At least it try to self-destruct. As you see, Commander, it mostly intact. Only thing that was lost data stored inside…

It was bad news. Mira got information from Hyun-Ae about whereabouts of Zentradi in region. It seemed that one of the main fleet was quite close by to this system and could appear quite fast if they got enough information to act.

"Deploy jammers in the system! Scout groups, search for other drones!" – She had to inform the girl about their current predicament and make them flee from the system before Zentradi would arrive. While "Chang'e" should be able to deal with millions of ships under specific conditions, one of that condition was mental stability of her pilot… And there was a problem with this – Hyun-Ae had never experienced real battle and never killed anyone. Under such pressuring circumstances, it would be better to flee without giving any fight.

The Empire… Well, it would probably lose this system and entire fleet stationed there to Zentradi attack…


	9. Chapter 08

**AN:** Sorry for my absense. I got a lot of planning going on my working place. These columns of digits stressing me a lot during the recent days. Here the next chapter.

 **Chapter 08**

"It seems that people here does not really hate the Empire," – While looking at the scenery that passed behind the car window, Hyun-Ae politely threw a question to her companion. By her observation, the people of Aptic III was wary of the Abh but not entirely antagonistic to them. Unlike the religious fanatics from the United Mankind, majority of population on the surface did not really care about who ruled that space around their planet as long as they could freely trade their industrial goods for daily necessities and food. They were more interested in the foreign princess that was escorted by one of Abh nobles, who was at the same time a Deputy Ambassador.

Jinto smiled in return but kept silent. The incident that happened at the star port was still on his mind despite the fact that Lafiel informed him about her safe return. He thought that the difference between landers and the Empire was wider than he previously imagined. Looking at the princess of the New United Nations his mind wondered about one possibility: would common people be wary of the Empire if the Abh as whole remained as close to human lineage? After all, during several interaction on the Aptic III, there was no even a seed of hostility toward this black-haired girl.

"Count, it looks like you still preoccupied with the incident from earlier on?" – With a sigh, Hyun-Ae lightly kicked Jinto to get his attention. The youngster in question turned his head and looked back at her – "Your Excellency, I think your personnel business with your girlfriend could lead to a lot of complications in you career, if you continue to be so obvious about your feeling."

"Wh-wh-what do you mean by "girlfriend", Your Highness?" – Jinto's face became slightly red from embarrassment while he started to stutter.

"Good, at least your mood is a little better than a few seconds ago;" – The self-proclaimed princess glanced at the scenery and continued – "Let us be honest with each other… We both know that the Empire is not as good at management of the planets; they leave them to their own devices without assistance, which in return could lead to many problems later on…"

There was a truth in these words. Jinto himself thought that the Empire way to deal with planet dwellers was a little too aloof, creating a lot of negative misunderstanding with landers. This, as result, could lead to rebellions and a like. While the Empire was strong and had no real competition aside, maybe, the United Mankind and allied nations, it could pass. However, the New United Nations example had shown that there could be more powerful nations, lurking in the darkness of space.

"Well, I am not really a person that should talk about governing a nation though," – Hyun-Ae continued to talk, still looking outside of the car – "I am just a fossil of the blissful past, from the time when our home world was a beautiful blue sphere in the star ocean. Still, I want you to understand that the New United Nations was built through sacrifices and determination of our people…"

"Your meaning, Your Highness?" – Something in the last sentence was wrong, at least Jinto thought the mood became suffocating for him. It would be better if Lafiel was present here to talk about politics and alike, not him who decided to go with the flow and protect Martine as much as he would be able.

The girl sighed and turned her head toward this naïve count. She smiled at him and pointed upward – "The Empire does not try to understand Landers, because the Abh thinks it is a bother, am I right? However, such attitude sooner or later will lead to rebellion…"

A possibility of rebellion was not zero. Even in the past, the Ground Forces raised against the Empire and briefly got a hold of the capital. Only the lack of competent star fleet allowed the Empire to deal with it without any long lasting problems and the army was reorganized to avoid such possibilities in the future. Even the current policy made a rebellion as futile struggle – without any war capable ships it would be impossible to truly hold independence from the Abh. Any ground operation would not be a necessity because of ability to bombard the ground defenses from the orbit and in rare case even complete destruction of the planet could be achieved – theoretically, since such usage of the fleet was a complete waste of resources.

"No need to look at me with such troubled face, Your Excellency," – Despite being apathetic toward the government policy as a whole, Hyun-Ae understood the general outline of it. Currently, the New United Nations was weak but even before she would die of old age, if everything would go right – the numerical advantage of other great nations would be negated by superior technology. Thus, while their current strength was not enough to intervene with global politics, it could be the case later on – "You need to understand that my people look down at some practices of the Empire. Well, the same goes with the United Mankind too. So..."

"Your Highness, are you saying that the New United Nations could become an enemy to the Empire?" – It was a certain possibility that in the future the difference in views could lead to the conflict. Still, the Empire had won all wars to this date…

"Yes, if the Empire continue with its current non-caring policy with planet dwellers, we could become enemies in the future... I want to warn you… We fight our wars until our opposition surrender or completely annihilated… We are willing to fight to the bitter end, using all possible ways to win and in case of existential crisis… You will not want to see our forbidden weaponry…" – Hyun-Ae spoke about a war like it was something she lived through, despite never being on battlefield. However, Jinto felt that the girl in front of him saw some horrible things during her long life and shared general opinion of her people to prevent a conflict before it could escalate to full war – "I telling you this, Your Excellency, because you look like a person who pretty much understand the limits of your nation policy…"

"We have a major problem on our hands!" – The message was projected directly on Hyun-Ae's retina, forcing her to stop her philosophical monologue and concentrating on the follow up text – "We found an old Zentradi recon drone. It was operable and likely informed the corresponding fleet about our existence. I would like you to return on your ship as soon as possible. I think there is a chance that rogue Zentradi force could arrive to this system in the next eighty hours."

That was a real mood killer. If Mira was right, than their small fleet could bring some large strike force from Zentradi into the system. Knowing the basic policy of Protoculture soldiers, there was a certain scenario, which could lead to complete annihilation of Aptic III. Likely something around 2000-3000 thousand capital ships.

Hyun-Ae looked at the silent Jinto, who continued to think over the dilemma that was presented to him, and waved her hand to get his attention…

* * *

"It is only 2000 ships. We have over 100000 ships as for now on the orbit of Aptic III," – Dusanyu could not understand why the princess wanted to discuss battle plan when the victory was guaranteed. Of course, he understood that there was a technological advantage of the other side but according to the data provided by the New United Nation, the rogue Zentradi fleets had no access to the most recent weapon and defensive systems.

"It may be true that we have overwhelming advantage in numbers but our ancestors were careless and a standard Zentradi fleet usually numbered in millions of capital ships. These 2000 ships are part of the search and destroy recon groups," – It was Mira, who explained the basic military doctrine of Zentradi. Unlike humans, her race fought in the simplest way: fold in, overwhelm enemy with sudden fire and retreat. Rinse and repeat. Of course, the search and destroy fleets, like the one that attacked the Earth during the Space War I, did not attacked the potential enemy right from the start. Otherwise, the humanity would became extinct a long time ago – "These groups could inform the main fleet in vicinity and a real strike group will arrive to deal with us. You need to understand that in this case it would be battle with the same numbers, the standard wartime fleet is numbered in 90000-150000 ships…"

The standard tactics for both the NUNS and the Star Force were quite similar to each other during the first phase of battle. When an enemy appeared the fleet would launch barrages of missiles to an enemy position, destroying as much enemies as possible during this initial stage. However, unlike the Abh Star Force, the New United Nations never designed dedicated missile type battleship. At the same time Assault-class ships of Abhs were not compatible with high maneuver engagement doctrine of Variable Fighters: while being faster than their own capital ship and on par with older VF models in terms of overall mobility, they lacked the punch and utility of NUNS space fighters.

To make matters more complicated, the Abh weapons were not suited for battles with high numerical disadvantages. While missiles were comparable with NUNS own anti-ship ones, their quantity heavily relied on number of battleships that could only launch one barrage at a time and reload for several hours afterward.

"Is it possible to evacuate the entire population of the planet?" – It was another possible solution, which would rely heavily on the logistics of the Empire. Hyun-Ae did not want to fight near the high-density populated planet because in battle anything was possible, the Space War I proved it a long time ago.

Admiral Kenesh shook her head. The population of industrial planet like Aptic III had reached the limits of its ecosystem. It was over ten billions in number. The planet itself was not able to sustain such mass of people and heavily depended on inter-stellar trade for food and some organic medicine.

"Yes, Your Highness, it would be impossible to evacuate the entire population of the planet. Even if we would have an entire year, it still not doable even in terms of migration administration. So, I suggest we abandon the planet," – For Dusanyu it was an obvious choice. As it is, the current stage of Operation Phantom Flame, the strategic importance of the Aptic System was lost, the enemy main force was routed and local defense fleets on their path would not be able to resist them. As long as he would be able to keep his own fleet intact.

It sounded cruel but in terms of a long-time strategy, the single non-crucial fortress could be easily left behind, sometimes defenders could even destroy it before an enemy reached it. There was no real need to fight over Aptic III against the superior fleet. There was no real gains in such action.

"I agree with this decision," – Unlike the Supervision Army, Zentradi would not directly attack the planet as long as it was not marked as contaminated. Mira knew it, and because of this agreed to abandon the planet and retreat – "A recon fleet will patrol in the system outside the reach of the planet surveillance vessels for three-five years and leave afterwards if nothing will agitate it."

Still, there was a major flaw in the plan that Hyun-Ae mentioned right away – "I am not eager to fight as well but we are basically leaving these people to die from starvation? Did you forget, this planet could not self-sustain itself," – Without import of food, the population would slowly die even if the Zentradi would just blockade the system for some time. The standard procedure would require a recon group to stay there up to five years.

The classic response would be something like "problems of landers are not of concern for the Abh"; however, Dusanyu had read a report of that interesting fellow from the Hyde system that served under his niece. That kind of answer would surely antagonize the Empire with the New United Nations. Despite them being very similar to them, these people still lingered for the surface, probably because their princess was a lander.

"We will leave them all our hydroponic gardens from our ships. Additionally, we could unload all our rations that are not necessary for our retreat to the closest civilized system," – It would severely cripple the advancement of their fleet if enemy had some kind of major reinforcement in region but would not hinder the completion of all strategic goals otherwise. Just a lot of resources to resupply. Of course, he was considerate because of everything went smoothly during this operation.

"Hmm, since you mentioned it, my fleet can probably become a bait if we fight at the edges of the system," – With this tactic, they could demolish a recon fleet to dust, leaving several strugglers to tell the tale, and withdraw. She was assured that after several folds, especially through Vajra controlled zones, the Zentradi would lose their traces. It would ensure the safety of the planet the other way.

"It is dangerous, even though it will likely work well if you don't make any severe mistakes," – Mira thought that implementation of this plan would force a recon group to pursue them and leave the system behind, as long as there would no interaction from locals or the Empire.

"Commander Orbos, do you think it is a viable strategy to allow Her Highness to become a bait? I admire the courage of your princess but I think it is kind of foolish to put her in unnecessary danger," – Even though Cipair Kenesh was currently chief-of-stuff of Prince Dusanyu HQ, she was an admiral as well. That kind of reckless tactics would please someone like infamous Beneej Spoor but not her.

"Do you have another plan?" – Hyun-Ae attentively turned her eyes toward aloof assistant of the prince. She had already understood the symbiotic-of-sorts relationship between both officers of the Star Force.

"According to you data, those rogue Zentradi lack scrupulousness in their actions aside of destruction," – It was indeed somewhat true, as long as a recon fleet commander was not open-minded. Mira chuckled but kept her thoughts for herself. Cipair continued to explain her plan – "I suggest leaving the role of the bait to the Commander. As for the princess… I observed Your Highness personal ships and found that they were designed with landing on a planet surface in mind. Considering their volume and probable mass, I think they are fine with submerging in water…"

"So, your proposal is to hide?" – Mira never thought about such possibility. It really was a good plan, generally speaking. It had some flaws here and there but in their current state, they could bet on it.

"Yes, I think it would be better for Her Highness to hide in the waters of Aptic III while you Commander, as a hardened veteran unlike your princess, would fight in battle and retreat to shake off a tail later," – It was a cunning plan that utilized the general arrogance of Zentradi toward the other races. Admiral Kenesh had no knowledge about it but her thoughts were indeed close to reality to some degree.

"I think we should fight…" – Those words that abruptly came out of Hyun-Ae's mouth made everyone speechless. They wasted a lot of time to come to such one-sided conclusion that came from the least experienced person in this war council. However, the next sentence made them understand, why it was proposed…

Because it was not a proposal…

"I detected numerous fold signatures at the edge of the system…"

* * *

 **P.S.** : Fixed some mistypes that were pointed in reviews.


	10. Interlude

**AN:** I just gave up writting a proper resolution of Zentradi contact (after several attempts) and put it on the bus for awhile in order to continue the story. This is not a full chapter but rather, a simple interlude befor the next arc.

* * *

The Empress Ramaj silently looked at the girl, who sat opposite of her. As the 27th ruler of the Humankind Empire of Abh, she had met a lot of Abh and Landers but never the likes in front of her. Despite age, she felt awe seeing a person who was older than the Empire itself, the one who had been born before the age of exploration. It was like looking at history itself.

On other hand, Hyun-Ae couldn't reboot her brain after initial shock of meeting the Abh Empress. She thought that there she had never met such a beautiful person in all her life, beautiful and dignified. That was an aura of nobility around this blue-haired woman, nothing could be compared to her own act of make-believe play that she performed.

However, the most uncomfortable was the young man, who set in-between two females, Count Hyde, Jinto. Sitting beside him, was Lafiel, who didn't show any emotion on her face. They were invited to this informal meeting in order to relieve stress of the Princess Yi, who came to Lakfakalle, the Imperial Capital alone, escorted by Star Force on the Abh Cruiser.

Of course, after witnessing the millions of ships in the Aptic System, no one would dare to offend the princess. The nation which could master that amount of force could not be taken lightly. The arrival of her flagship, "Chang'E", with two escorts into the Capital's system several hours later reinforced those beliefs. Something like this would usually considered rude but Abh accepted it without making any noise.

"Did your rest well, Your Highness Princess Yi? Does this environment suit your tastes?" – As the host of the meeting, Ramaj asked her guest in very soft but recognizable voice. She learnt that Princess Yi preferred surface environment and put some effort to reorganize this garden into meeting place, with simple gazebo and artificial lightning that emulated skies of the planet.

"Yes, Your Majesty," – Hyun-Ae returned to her senses and politely smiled at the Empress. Her travel to the Capital was a little nerve-wracking because it was the first time for her to travel through Planar Space but overall she adapted very fast to everything, aside maybe extreme politeness from personnel. That never happened during her service in Spacey – "It was interesting to see another method of faster than light travel. As a scientist I was really intrigued in this."

"We are glad to hear it," – The woman turned her attention to the boy, who sat like decoration to her left at the round table and reassuringly smiled to him, which in turn make him more stiff. After this, Ramaj looked back at the princess and continued – "We heard that your people traveled through space for centuries and experienced numerous hardships."

It took several seconds for Hyun-Ae to form a response – "To answer, Your Majesty… We, Macrossians, indeed fought for our existence in numerous encounters with superior forces. However, without such experiences, we would never become who we are now."

"Macrossians?" – Ramaj paused and slightly tilted her head to the side – "We never heard about such term. What does it mean?"

"Our first battleship was named "Macross". After our first devastating space war, the initial survivors built a city around it and called themselves as a joke, Macrossians. Your Majesty could say that it is our nation second name," – Everything she told to the Empress, Hyun-Ae discussed prior with Rear Admiral Pavlov and his Headquarters. Some truths could not be told after all. To keep pretense of mystery around them.

The Empress sighed in her mind. Such sentimentality was somewhat understandable by Ramaj. Abh themselves were partially clinging to their past. Still, she could feel partially feel that the princess was not truly sincere with her. It was hard for her to start conversation about New United Nation future as the part of the Empire.

She had a meeting with advisory council prior to discuss the appearance of new major force in the galaxy. After prolonged disputes, the council agreed that if possible, New United Nations should become part of the Humankind Empire of Abh.

"Princess, what do you think about joining us?" – If there was no way to properly form a path, one could just brace herself and move in the straight line.

"Your Majesty asks about alliance between our nations…" – There was some weakness and tiredness in the tone of the Empress, which caught Hyun-Ae off-guard. She, like her counterpart, learnt some history of Abh and could guess intentions – "Or something else?" – The straightforward question meant the straightforward answer.

Ramaj silently sighed once again. It was clear that New United Nations cherished their independence, their history and their individuality. There was no way for them to join the Empire out of free will. The Empire itself could not force them join as well. It would be the first time in the history of Abh…

"Of course, We are asking about joining our hands in a formal alliance," – Jinto, who sat without making any sound while sipping tea, like a background character, almost chocked but managed to keep appearances. It would be the first time for the Empire to offer alliance with other nation.

"I think it is possible to form an alliance, even military one," – Carefully choosing words, the fake princess repeated lines that she had practiced before.

Currently, New United Nations structural integrity was a farce that was unknown to all big players in this timeline. It was a blessing that the 118th Zentradi Main Fleet joined them without any confrontation. Probably, because there were already some Zentradi battleships among their numbers. To build a foundation, they need resources, time and allies. And most importantly – the knowledge of humanity circumstances.

"However, I want to ask a question to Count Hyde and Viscountess Paryunu. Is it possible?" – Hyun-Ae wanted to hear some opinions from the younger generation of Abh nobility. She was naïve in politics but her life among Zentradi got her some understanding about how wars are waged. Despite all Abh bravado, she could sense that they are not as militaristic as they were seen by others.

Ramaj looked at two other people at the table and lightly smiled – "Of course, We allow Your Highness to ask some questions to our subjects," – It was intriguing even for her. What kind of question and what kind of answer the millennium years old representative of the nation had in mind?

Hyun-Ae politely smiled back and slightly turned her head to two young nobles to ask one, very philosophical question – "Count Hyde, Viscountess Paryunu… What do you think war is?"

* * *

Year 955 I.C. During the second battle at Aptic III, Star Force met a new nation that came to the light of star out of darkness of space. Technologically advanced beyond understanding of Abh scientists, experienced in space survival and exploration, they called themselves New United Nations or Macrossians.

The first time in the history of the Humankind Empire of Abh, the Empire proposed to form the alliance with those newcomers. Some told that it was out of fear, some told that it was because Abh for the first time found someone they could respect as equals. However, the one thing could not be denied, the Lakfakalle trade treaty was signed by two side by the start of Year 956 I.C. New United Nations cargo ships with military escorts were allowed to trade with any system under Abh control.


	11. Chapter 09

**AN:** Well, let's start slowly like was in original CotS.

 **Chapter 09**

"It seems that adjustments are not required," – Hyun-Ae examined results of test on the monitor and lightly smiled. The upgraded version of Abh laser cannon was developed in very limited time by Yutu based on specification she gave to it before leaving the Aptic system on the Imperial Cruiser – "I think it the maximum we could do with your current technological level and power resources of your ships," – The girl turned her head toward Prince Dusanyu who returned from the front line for quality control of the new laser cannon developed by New United Nations for the Empire.

As the commander of the fleet, it was not really his job to be present during test runs but… For the first time in a long time, he got intrigued by actions of people that were not part of the Empire.

"I managed to raise firepower by 273 percent and decrease power consumption of each shot by 13 percent. Together with lesser heat emission, the rate of fire should increase by 7 percent," – It was still not on par with CIWS lasers of later Valkyries due to difference in technological base but Hyun-Ae found a lot tweaks that can be used by NUNS to increase efficiency of their own beam weaponry as well. Limitations of their own forced scientists and engineers of Abh to develop different solution that were solved straightforwardly by her own colleagues in the past.

"It seems that you really like to design new weapons and spaceship systems, Your Highness," – Dusanyu could feel the same passion that he felt during his younger years toward future in Star Force. The only difference was the direction of this passion.

"Not really… My main specialization is A.I. development…" – Hyun-Ae glanced at the Abh prince and ungracefully shrugged her shoulders – "You Highness could say that it is my hobby of sorts. I like to play with machines," – After her awakening she had a hard time to adjust to new society and scientific world was the least one to change dramatically. Thus she choose this path for her own comfort and got hooked in A.I. research program, which was shunned by many due to some troubles of the past – "Additionally, it would put me as far away from dangers of war as possible…"

"Why would your people push you away from the battlefield? Isn't it the duty of nobles to protect the peace of the nation?" – For the majority of the Abh nobility, the service in military was the honorable duty required to inherit the position of their parents. Especially for royalty. Dusanyu couldn't understand it. Partially this kind of behavior reminded him of some Landers habits where rulers tried to get as far away from danger as possible.

"Who knows?" – It was something that was normal for humans of her own timeline, to put civilians away from the frontline if it was possible – "Probably because my usefulness in labs would be much greater in comparison to battlefield…"

"I wouldn't say that you are lacking in combat training, princess," – While it was likely that the girl in front of him was not a hardened veteran and talented commander, she was not incompetent too.

The several friendly mock battles had shown that the princess knew strong and weak points of her battleships and performed accordingly. She called herself a civilian, the term that would be close to Landers of Abh, but it put a question in Dusanyu's mind about her nation. What kind of history it had that even civilians were semi-proficient in battle? The history of no-ending war?

He silently looked at the young Lander girl that turned back to her holographic monitor, leaving no his last comment unanswered. That kind of attitude would usually be met with scorn of his own but for the first time in his life that he felt that the Abh were not true citizens of the stars and that thought annoyed him.

The prince excused himself and exited the testing grounds, slowly walking through narrow corridors of the Imperial shipyard toward his flagship docks. He had a lot of on his mind to think of, especially the strange sense of irritation that he felt after this, on first glance, insignificant dialogue with New United Nation princess.

"It seems that you are displeased, Your Highness," – Dusanyu glared at the admiral Kenesh who came to the docks at the same time as him.

"It is not of your concern, admiral," – The sharp tone made Kenesh to wonder what could happen in the testing ground that the prince should have visited earlier. Sensing that his subordinate became confused because of his own out of character behavior, Dusanyu calmed himself and in asked a more business-like question – "Is everything in order?"

The Operation "Hunter" should have begun three weeks ago but it was postponed in order to finish negotiation with New United Nations. This delay allowed United Mankind to reinforce some strategically important systems with battle stations and additional ships. Two day ago, the Empress allowed the operation to resume.

"Yes, Your Highness," – the female admiral smirked at slightly childish behavior of the prince but kept her ironic comments to herself – "According to our intelligence, the Alliance had known our plans for some time but unsure where and how we would strike. Because of this they are spread thin among many possible systems, making our goal possible to reach within previous plans."

"Good. I thought this delay would compromise our plans but those fools really missed their main weakness," – As Commander-in-Chief he was pleased with mistakes of Abh enemies. When they approached "Sankau" Dusanyu stopped and looked around, remembering something – "Would new class of ships be deployed for this operation?"

"No. It was decided to refit already produced ships with new laser cannons from New United Nations. Additionally, Princess Yi agreed to develop in cooperation with our engineers new class of Assault Ships."

"Speaking about this princess… What do you think about her?" – As Abriel and the next in the line of succession, the prince could not accept that the Empire traded secret of their interstellar travel with these newcomers. He could not understand why the Empress was interested in this princess as well. The council was divided about her decision but overall did not tried to oppose extensively. Even he himself from time to time got intrigued by her antics.

"Hmm…" – It was a question out of the blue for Kenesh, the one she could not answer right away – "It is hard to tell, Your Highness. Princess Yi seems naïve and childish but my intuition tells me that there is more behind this façade of hers," – New United Nation was able to get some of Abh secrets while completely hiding their own – "I think we should be more cautious dealing with her and her nation. Your Highness saw himself how powerful they are…"

Literally millions of ships still haunted Dusanyu's thoughts. Even all five great nations together would not be able to match that fleet that could haul planetoid-size battleships through interstellar distances. Many thought that it was coincidence but he believed that it was well planned play for the Empire to see.

New United Nations had the Empire and the Alliance on the palm of their hand, open and vulnerable. He was Commander-in-Chief for some time now and felt that he should make everything in his abilities to preserve the Empire – "I have the same thoughts… The princess is very cunning and intelligent. Not the usual Lander we met so far."

"Yes, I agree with this," – Kenesh had read reports of mock battles between Star Force and three NUNS battleships. While at the beginning Star Force was able to score victories, it soon became total annihilation in every following war game – "The princess acts like a lander, thinks like a lander and has mannerism of a lander but she learns her lessons fast, has an open mind and extremely unyielding like a true Abh."

After brief pause the admiral added – "However, I think it was fortunate for the Empire to meet them first. Imagine what kind of trouble the Empire would get if these people made contract with United Mankind."

"Don't remind me about it," – He disliked that fact because it was bitter truth. Those who would ally themselves with New United Nations would dominate other four nations. Despite months of negotiations, the Humankind Empire of Abh was only able to sign trade treaty, which was unprecedented itself, and not military alliance – "We should go to the bridge…"

Abruptly ending dialogue, Dusanyu entered the ship followed by his second-in-command. "Sankau" left Imperial Shipyard several hours later and traveled to Dalmav where was the main garrison of operation deployed.

* * *

Lakfakalle was a gargantuan construction that was orbiting a yellow dwarf star at a distance of 0,4 AU. As the heart of the Humankind Empire of Abh there was many military facilities alongside different residential and commercial areas, mostly dedicated no nobility or military service men. The massive cloud of anti-matter factories that surrounded the yellow dwarf reminded Hyun-Ae about Dyson Sphere construct, something that theoretically should be able to gather all energy of the star. It was something even New United Nations had never tried to build around Sun because there was no necessity for it and more pressing matters to solve. Still, this construction was a piece of engineering art and dedication of Abh to live outside of planetary ecosystem.

"This picture always reminds me how different we are from Abh…" – Hyun-Ae turned her head and saw a bulky man in the standard officer uniform of Star Force. He was slightly taller of her, with brown hair and a large cross-like scar on the left cheek. Noticing her questionable gaze, the man smiled and introduced himself in carefree manner – "I am Chief Engineer of "Basroil", Samson Tirusec. Nice to meet you, Your Highness. I was present during our first contact back there, at Aptic System."

"You don't look like Abh…" – After this, Hyan-Ae pointed at her forehead and continued – "Nor do you look like territorial noble of the first generation, Mr. Tirusec."

"Yeah, I am just your normal citizen of the Empire. Unlike our captain and supply officer…" – Samson would never have thought that he would encounter the main newsmaker of the Humankind Empire of Abh in the commercial area for common people, who mostly consisted of low ranking officers from different planets like himself. Abh themselves rarely visited this part of Lakfakalle because of some disdain towards landers – "What does Your Highness looking for here?"

"Just wandering around…" – Aside of scientists and engineers of the Imperial Research Facility, the girl felt that other Abh were looking at her with some kind of scorn, like she was not welcomed. Well, probably she was not welcomed for real because of how her appearance crushed beliefs of Abh in their special place.

"Abh could be really pushy and domineering. There is no need to worry too much about it, Your Highness," – It was something that Samson understood very well.

On the other hand, he never was discriminated by Abh because of his lander origin – sometimes there would be snobbish Abhs who would look down on him – but overall those blue haired guys respected people with skills and discipline. For this girl, it was probably hurt pride that talked for them. Pride and honor was something very important to Abh after all.

"Like your captain?" – A little earlier Hyun-Ae saw Lafiel near the testing grounds, right after brief talk with Commander-in-Chief, Abriel Dusanyu, but was properly ignored by the Abh girl.

"About this…" – Samson was at loss of words how to describe the current atmosphere on "Basroil". He could understand all parties involved but still mentally sighed at childishness of his captain.

Two day ago, Hecto-Commander Atosuryua received orders from HQ that were announced to the crew of "Basroil" as well. Their Assault Squadron was to remain in Lakfakalle in order to escort the New United Nations princess to any destination that were not classified. Lafiel understood the importance of this mission but considered it not suitable for Abriel. She kept these thought to herself but the entire crew clearly saw through her façade.

"Our captain has some troubles right now," – Turning away his eyes her looked at the magnificent sight of Lakfakalle outside the large transparent wall. He sighed – "This time is hard for her… She may look like any other Abh, distant and prideful but deep inside… Like me or any other human being, our captain is a little insecure…"

After pause, he laughed and added – "Just don't tell this to the captain, please… She would skin me alive…"

"I understand…" – Hyun-Ae chuckled at irresponsible but warm attitude of Samson and asked the question that was bothering her for a while – "Mr. Tirusec, what do you think about motives behind the United Mankind? Their reasons seem so stretched…"

"Greed, fear, pride… I don't know…" – As a simple citizen of the Empire, Samson did not really care about true reasons behind actions of the United Mankind.

However, by remembering the past of his home world, he could make conclusion that as the rulers, Abh were not unreasonable. Unlike other nations, they provided everything his own planet was lacking: be it medicine, technology or safe interstellar travel, though limited to Abh vessels but nonetheless something better than nothing.

The Humankind Empire of Abh was not interested in local laws, as long as they kept landers satisfied with government, and left planets to themselves, only ruling over space around the systems they absorbed. From time to time, even territorial governors were selected among natives, like it happened in the Hyde system.

"To tell truth, Your Highness, I don't really get it myself," – Despite being far away from debates about human purity, Samson had a proper knowledge about biology and understood that all talks about human purity was nonsense. It was true that Abh were genetically engineered but many human colonies were genetically altered to better adapt in environments of their colonies – "However, I believe that I would prefer the Empire over any other nation to govern over my home."

"That is an interesting conclusion… I thought that humans prefer to self-govern over their own worlds…" – Hyun-Ae remembered historical data about Anti-UN wars as well as many border conflicts with different colonies which in the end rebuilt United Nations into New United Nations.

"Yeah, I think it is natural for humans to believe that we can lead ourselves to the better future but…" – The man spread his arms – "I think it is better to stick together under benevolent leadership," – Toning down his voice, he moved a little closer and whispered – "And as far as I concerned, the Empire is probably the most benevolent. At least, as long as you do not openly rebel, Abh provides you with food, shelter, medicine and living space. You just need to endure their haughty attitude from time to time."

"That is why you joined Star Force, Mr. Tirusec?" – Such behavior from adult and serious looking man was funny to look and allowed Hyun-Ae to relax a little bit.

"Me? Of course not…" – This war was surprise for him. He joined Star Force because working for them gave more income than he would ever get on his home planet. However, if he had known about incoming war, he would never join Star Force. Once own life was still more precious than money – "I want to buy a small farm, get a family and live peacefully till the day I will die… And Abhs pay generously with addition of pension after my retirement. It is best offer anybody in the galaxy could enjoy aside… I never thought that the war could happen like this."

They both chuckled about irony behind Samson's words.

"What about you, Your Highness…" – As Chief Engineer, he was interested in this girl, who despite looking so young was able to advance Abh researches in span of several months while Abh themselves had been struggling for decades.

"I was born on Earth… You know, the true home of all humans…" – Hyun-Ae remembered the shock after witnessing the outcome of the Space War I. It was so surreal to see deserted world, restored from the scratch but still full of scars of the Rain of Death – "In 1987 A.D. and because of some health problems I was put into cryo-stasis."

"Oh… So…" – Samson almost blurted out about her age, that was already in for digits number – "You Highness is quite sturdy despite your looks…" – This silly phrase made Hyun-Ae giggling…

"Yeah… Even my position of the princess is something tied to my age..." – Fixing her posture the girl looked at the center of Lakfakalle, where the mother ship of Abhs was resting – "Or more likely, it is something that people around me earn and remember but would never get and see again."

She heard that founding families were prideful and distant even to their own kin that joined them later but they still were sentimental enough held to their past in the form of mother ship around which, the Empire built their Capital. The same way that humans still tried to revive Earth after the Space War I.

"Count Hyde…" – Hyun Ae saw familiar face that was running toward her with quite distressed look. When the young man saw her, he stopped and nervously smiled back.

"I am on duty, Your Highness… That is why you should address me as Supply Officer Lynn," – Polite business-like answer with a hint of tiredness behind.

"Oh… Boy, what happened to you?" – Samson laughed after examining the exhausted young man in front of him – "Captain gave you a hard time?"

"That is not it… However, captain will sure chew you if we won't make it in time, Samson!" – Jinto sighed at another antic of his colleague. Being grown man he forgot that his communicator should be on-line all times even off-duty – "We should hurry, otherwise… You know what would happen…"

"Well, Your Highness… I was glad to speak with you… Need to run to keep myself safe and healthy? Excuse me…" – The Chief Engineer saluted and patted Jinto's shoulder – "Let's go… Your Excellency…"

"Samson!?" – With annoyed voice the youngster closed his eyes and sighed. He turned to Hyun-Ae and saluted as well – "Excuse us, Your Highness…"

After this, both males hurriedly departed and disappeared in the crowd, leaving Hyun-Ae alone.

"People didn't change even after two thousand years…" – Murmuring to herself, the girl raised her hand and looked at her wristwatch, which immediately projected small holographic screen with time, date and different information, including one red message…

Departure at 17:00.

"Oh… NICE!" – She was late to reserved time in the docks. The time on her wristwatch were showing "17:03". The accursed cycle of sleeping and working in the Research Facility and timeless environment in Lakfakalle made her careless about time. The flexible attitude of her Abh colleagues in the facility didn't help either.

With a sigh she slowly walked toward the mass transit system of the Capital. Since she was already late there was only one option remained – to be late with dignity.

At the same time, on "Chang'E" the main combat A.I., with the same name as the vessel it was installed on, stopped its analysis of all information available about Abh, despite never being asked to do this. It was something that "Yutu" assistant A.I. was aware but considered acceptable because no important processing time was used and no breaches to executive protocols were performed.


	12. Chapter 10

**AN:** Here is the filler chapter. R&R your opinions about the possible answer for the last question in the chapter.

 **Chapter 10**

A massive, brick-like 4-km long spacecraft was floating at appropriate distance from Lakfakalle military docks with two smaller vessels nearby. Unlike other ships presented not so far, those ships had clearly different design in comparison to standards of the Empire with letters on hulls from old, almost forgotten and practically dead, language.

"It seems that we have been paid for our troubles," – Hyun-Ae looked at the large sum that appeared on her account. Of course, the Humankind Empire of Abh was not foolish enough to give access to their network nor Spacy command was stupid to allow unknown code to run on military vessels processors. Additionally, Abh programs were not compatible with native operation systems of New United Nations. Without source code it took some time to create crude virtual machine for Yutu to run on "Chang'E" computers.

The Empire paid hefty sum of 775 million of their native currency, skarr, for development of new laser cannon for Star Force. Considering that basic needs for one adult could be satisfied by mere 20-30 skarr per month, including food, shelter and clothes, it should be enough to buy some materials and supplies on the imperial market to support colony on Gizel I. Pavlov had some troubles to settle up on the planet. Being very close to Earth made it easy in terms of life-sustain but on the other hand biological hazards raised to enormous levels. Because of this, it was never fully colonized in their own time line. It was something, she had forgotten because of her lack in medical knowledge.

"Should we ask for Abh terraforming ships?" – According to the gathered data, the Empire was able to terraform celestial objects of Earth-group into habitable planets with their terraforming technology which was still under development in New United Nations. The cost for one ship was astronomical though – "Nah, what we need are materials for medicine, everyday clothes and food, a lot of food…"

The 497th Research fleet could produce enough to feed, under strict supervision and ignoring the taste, around million and half people. However, after the initial incidents, the most vulnerable part of the fleet, after fragile research equipment, were gardens and farms.

Any imperial goods, which would still need to pass quarantine procedures but procuring them would be faster and would not divert resources that were needed to build defense grid, which as it was now, had been the first priority.

Another option would be request food from the 118th Zentradi Grand Fleet, which was pointed out by Mira and was rejected by Pavlov for some unknown reasons. Lt. Commander to Hyun-Ae surprise didn't object that decision.

"Incoming transmission from NUNS "Star Express I", astrogator A.I. on the line," – The first, test Planar vessel of New United Nations arrived safely to Lakfakalle without suffering any malfunctions during its travel from the Aptic system.

"Star Express I" was an experimental ship with design very close to "Megaroad 2" colony ship but unlike her ancestor, it was constructed as cargo ship with almost hollow hull and minimal defense options. Built from simple titanium and steel alloys with ECA support, it was cheap and easy to produce vessel for trade. And the most important it was almost completely compatible with the Abh vessels in technological base.

"Anti-matter fuel chambers seems to work bellow expected values but still somewhat acceptable," – Reading reports, Hyun-Ae focused her attention to energy efficiency of Planar travel. As predicted by "Yutu", energy per parsec for the same mass, was 88 percent better in comparison to Fold technology – almost ten times efficient. The downside was speed and convenience. Unlike modern Fold drive, which required only proper coordinates to travel, Planar drive required point of entry and exit, the Gateways also known as Sords. As witnessed by Aptic defense battle, it was major weakness of Planar drive and the main reason that massive international wars were rare in the past of this timeline.

"The imperial docks inquire if we require their help "Star Express 1"?" – Both "Chang'E" and her escort Battle Classes were able to properly dock with Abh, or any other great nations, docks or shipyards because difference in standards. "Express" line-up of ships, however, were designed with that in mind. After all, New United Nations planned to use them as the essential portion of their trade fleet with the Humankind Empire of Abh and other great nation if opportunity would present itself. For this, they were designed with minimal use of OverTechnology.

"No, we don't need their help," – For now, "Chang'E" would be the one to refuel experimental cargo ship in her test run across Abh controlled space – "Connect me to Hecto-Commander Atosuryua instead…"

Several minutes later another beautiful face appeared with wavy blue hairs. It was Hecto-Commander Atosuryua, who seemed to be quite surprised to be called directly.

"Hecto-Commander Atosuryua greets Your Highness!" – Despite initial surprise, as the proper Abh officer, the woman saluted to Hyun-Ae and moved straight to business – "I heard Your Highness need something to discuss with me?"

"No need to be so stiff, Hecto-Commander. I am not your superior," – Hyun-Ae looked at lights of Lakfakalle behind reinforced glass of the bridge and walked closer to the one at the front. The holographic screen followed her precisely – "I have been informed that your Assault Squadron is assigned to escort me to any planet under imperial control?"

"Yes, Your Highness… Did you decide on your destination?" – The girl felt that this Hecto-Commander looked very similar to her subordinate that she had been acquainted with.

Hyun-Ae put her palm on the thick reinforced glass and slightly turned her head toward the screen, meeting the woman on other side of line eye to eye – "Yes. Actually, I have several points of interests that I want to visit."

Days ago, she got some data from one of probes that "Chang'E" had covertly sent to explore nearby star systems beforehand. Though, not in the star system but in interstellar space, that probe found a massive ship, likely a generation ship from Earth. According to gathered information, the generation ship was of earlier designs, without cryo-chambers for colonists. The data was confirmed by the probe right before she returned on the ship.

It was unlikely that anybody was alive because, after traveling for more than one thousand years, it fusion reactor was in disrepair and its output should have dropped dramatically. Ship engines were dead for a long time already – they were no significant heat signatures. However, while it was unlikely for anybody survive there were still chances. Colonists could develop or complete researches of their own cryo-technology and use it to preserve themselves.

Hyun-Ae herself was alive right now because in the past she had been put into experimental cryo-sleep in order to prevent her illness terminal stages.

The deep silence on the line and slightly frowning face of Hyun-Ae was not something that Loy Atosuryua liked to see on her communication screen. That kind of expressions of her superiors usually meant a lot of troublesome affairs. While the princess of New United Nation was not her superior in any sense her Assault Squadron was ordered to follow her whenever she want in Abh controlled space.

"Hecto-Commander, how many crew members of your team are experienced in salvage operations?" – Prolonged pause ended, after the girl turned her head toward holographic screen.

"Salvaging operation? Like… Looking for survivors and important data from abandoned or destroyed ships?" – It was not a job of Assault Ships to perform that kind of operations. On other hand, while Star Force had dedicated teams to do this after major battles, every ship had a proficient crew of engineers and medical personnel that could do this if it was needed.

"Yes… I was informed about the generation ship that drifts in space not so far from there. I want to look into this matter…" – While her ship was fully autonomous and even could manufacture androids, it was impossible for A.I. to act the same way as humans – "I don't have engineers and more importantly my ship lack medics…"

"Well, I understand… But… Your Highness, that kind of missions should be performed by planetary administration," – The regulations were strict, aside rare occasions like it happened in Aptic System, Star Force would not be used for investigation in star systems. Those regulations were made like this to avoid corruption and power abuse by military as much as possible.

"I understand that rules are rules. I will send you all information about my findings," – Hyun-Ae really understood that military laws were written in blood and was prepared for some bureaucracy – "One of your ships would be enough. Well…" – She made a pause – "The ship is there in outer space, approximately 3 light years away from our current position without any Gateways… Sords… In close proximity."

"Could Your Highness request your nation to assist in this mission?" – The woman could not understand why it was really needed for Abh presence in such situation. It didn't make any sense because it was too far away from space controlled by the Empire.

"I could…" – But Hyun-Ae knew that Pavlov couldn't really spare any of their personnel under current circumstances. It was partially just her own selfish desire to look at derelict ship after all. Mira would likely help her if she had asked but it seemed that annoying acquaintance had some troubles with Zentradi on her hands – "It just something like this would take some time and I don't know how long…" – Waving her hand the girl finally came to conclusion – "Forget it, Hecto-Commander… It is really a job for somebody more trained in such mission…"

"I am glad that we came to the same conclusion," – With a mild smile, the Baroness Atosuryua responded – "Your Highness said that you wanted to travel to a system under imperial control. I presume that previous request wasn't included in that statement?"

"Ah… Thanks for reminding me about it. Sometimes my interests get better of me…" – For Loy, it looked more that Princess Yi had been just plainly bored – "I want to procure some provisions…"

* * *

"I think you should rest, Deca-Commander Abriel?" – With concern in her voice, Hyun-Ae looked at sluggish Abh girl that had entered the bridge moment ago.

"Is it an order, Your Highness?" – Lafiel asked the foreign princess while she tried to keep her balance intact, slightly wavering with each step. Her greenish face was filled with stubbornness and determination.

"No… Well, you can do whatever you want, Deca-Commander. Just don't get yourself more ill…" – Sighing, Hyun-Ae turned her head toward screen and started to read various reports about the derelict ship around 0,7 AU from the current position of "Chang'E".

After the dialogue with Hecto-Commander Atosuryua, as the representative of New United Nations, Hyun-Ae decided to travel to one of many agricultural planets in the Empire, to get some provision for their colony on Gizel I. Because of difference in speed, the Assault Squadron was divided into two groups: "Basroil" would travel inside "Chang'E" via fold space to the destination system in order to buy necessary goods while other five Assault Ships would escort "Star Express 1" through Planar Space.

It was possible to use enormous, both by Spacy and Star Force, inner space of the Fortress Class but it had been denied by HQ for safety reasons. Even more, Hyun-Ae found that almost all warehouses inside her ship was filled with experimental military androids, Destroids, Ghost fighters and even mobile fortification points for anti-boarding duty. That was why it was decided to transport provisions to Aptic System on "Star Express 1".

Who would have guessed that after several seconds in Fold Space, Abh crewmembers on board of "Basroil" would get sick, including Lafiel, Sobaash and Ekuruya. Yutu came to conclusion that Abh space-sensitive organ was the main reason for their current condition. Even normal humans would sometimes feel discomfort during folding process after all. The questionable part was that Hyun-Ae's curiosity led them to the generation ship 3 light years away from Lakfakalle first. Because of this, they were submerged in the superdimension only for 9 seconds.

"Captain, I think you should rest and get better," – Samson, who was wandering around the bridge and looking at holographic screens, built-in monitors and very sterile looking panels here and there, turned his head and advised his superior in slightly fatherly tone – "I and kid will inform you if something important happens."

"I agree with Her Highness and Samson, Lafiel. You need to rest. After this, we could decide our next action," – Slowly and quietly, Jinto was trying to persuade the Abh girl while holding her shoulders and looking into her eyes. He thought that this grown up Abriel princess was doing this because of her pride and nothing else, something he got accustomed by being close to her for a while.

"I am really alright. A little nauseous but overall everything is alright. No need to worry, Jinto… Supply Officer Lynn," – Lafiel pushed Jinto from her and glared at her Chief Engineer, who wholeheartedly was examining new machinery and electronics without touching anything, like a proper specialist – "Chief Engineer, what is the crew doing now?"

Raising his head, Samson chuckled and waved his hand in careless manner – "They are working with new laser cannons," – He nodded toward another young girl on the bridge, who sat in captain chair and was checking something on her screen – "It will take some time so why not to start earlier since we have nothing to do… It saves me time to deal with their boredom as well."

"It is against regulation, Chief Engineer…" – It was forbidden to install new modules and equipment outside specialized Imperial Shipyards and Docks. It was not a matter of saving money but a question of security – "Stop… Chief Engineer… I… How long I was sick?" – Lafiel sensed in tone of her older and reliable, though sometimes very talkative, subordinate that she was out for some considerable time. Enough, for the crew to get bored.

"Sorry… Because of my carelessness you were unconscious for six standard hours…" – Hyun-Ae put aside her work and turned her head toward the group of people slightly below her position. She stood up and walked closer to them – "Med bay sent reports about condition of your crew, there are not abnormalities. They should wake up soon. No need to worry… And I still suggest for you to rest, Deca-Commander Abriel."

"I grateful for your concern, Your Highness. But I am feeling well," – Despite her slightly sick appearance Lafiel really felt more or less normal. Under normal circumstances, she would think that it was a provocation of sorts but with current situation, it likely was just an accident – "When does Your Highness think to continue?" – Outside was darkness of space with a very weak dots of light – stars, without any planet in vicinity. Clearly they didn't get to their destination.

"After I find a way to ensure that you and your fellow Abh won't suffer from our way of space travel," – Actually, considering that the sickness was Abh specific organ which allowed them to claim that they were better suited to rule in space, Yutu proposed to put all Abh on board into cryo-sleep. It was really ironical to Hyun-Ae's taste – "As for the time being, how about helping me a little with exploration of the derelict ship not so far away?"

There was nothing that Lafiel could do. They were in the middle of nowhere, on foreign ship with faster than light travel that made Abh uncomfortable and sick. A total disgrace for the Empire. Jinto carefully examined her face, waiting every second for her sharky remark but to his relief the Abh girl turned to Samson and glared at him – "Chief Engineer, how long it would take to prepare "Basroil"?"

"Do not really know… Maybe another day or two…" – The bulky man scratched his scalp and added – "I think we could just seal some sectors of the ship and go like this in a few hours… Doubt that derelict ship would fire at us. Never heard about it," – Samson thought that they had to be as far away from those flying graveyards as possible. No one knew what kind of exotic death await them on them. Add that he had already satisfied his adventure spirit during Aptic recon mission on the same ship he currently stood.

"Well, I don't really want you to get close to this thing," – It seemed that those people got the wrong idea – "I need your expertise in machinery," – There was limits of how much can be done with A.I. support, especially without experts in different fields knowledge. She waved her hand and ordered – "Yutu, display "Mugunghwa" on strategic screen and all information that we found about her."

A massive holographic projection appeared in the middle of the bridge. It showed a a very unusual spacecraft. The part, which could be considered bow of the ship, had a spherical buldge with thick shaft that was going out of it. There was wide rotating ring connect to the shaft right behind the bow. According to the data it was the entirety of the ship that was rotating instead of how visually only rings were slowly turning. On the other side of the shaft was several spheres and protruding tubes, probably engines.

"It seems to be a generation ship of colossal proportions without artificial gravity system," – Hyun-Ae pointed at rotating rings – "I believe that this part of the ship is the main living quarters while the reactor and engines should be at the aft… If all gathered information is right, reactor is still functioning but it lives its last days…"

"Do you think… Does Your Highness think that colonists are still alive?" – Jinto asked while looking at the holographic projections. Long time ago, his ancestors braved space on the same type of ship and ended up on Martin.

"It is hard to tell," – It was really impossible to tell unless one could get inside or "Chang'E" with her advanced scanners could examine the ship from closer distance – "Even if somebody is alive, we need to repair this thing. Based on data it seems to be primitive fusion-nuclear hybrid reactor…"

"I have a question, Your Highness…" – Samson slightly raised his hand and pointed at the engine and reactor part – "Do we really need these? I think it would be better to just cut them off and supply energy, if it is really required from your ship?"

"Samson, would this really solve the problem?" – Jinto thought his friend forgot something. It looked as the easiest solution but his intuition told him that it was not as simple as it seemed to be.

Instead of answering the question, Hyun-Ae slightly waved her hand to zoom in the part of the ship in question. Then she moved her finger and turned image, showing engines exhaust.

"Engines are working. Their thrust is weak, just barely enough to deal with some gravitational pull from distant stars. Still, it could create some complications if we try to divide the ship into two halves," – To make it even more troublesome, while there was no much volume "Mugunghwa" was really long. It was longer than "Chang'E" in Battlecruiser mode. Prolonged time in space made its hull structurally weak.

"Hmm… I would suggest to drop this operation, based on the regulation of Star Force," – For Lafiel it was obvious that there were no benefits – only dangers. With this in mind, if she was in command, she would withdraw – "However, it could be different for Your Highness… Your nation science moved further in comparison to the Empire…"

"Ladies… I think you both concentrated on the wrong side of the coin," – Samson felt that there was some kind animosity between two girls, two royalties of different nations with different principles – "I want to point out… We should confirm if this "Mugunghwa" is a ghost ship or not…"


End file.
